2.2 Interface Theory

The key to the uniqueness of AgileTrack is its unique interface. Its interface idea was conceived after using a particular development process which involed large post-it notes (as opposed to index cards in Extreme Programming).

The post-it note system used a large board on which to stick the notes. Different regions of the board represented different projects or components of the system. If new tasks were thought up, they were written on a new post-it note and placed on the board. When iterations were planned, the sticky notes would be moved into the iteration region where they would be placed near the name of the developer who volunteered for the task, and the developer would also give a time estimate. When a developer was working on a task, he would take the sticky note a stick to the edge of his monitor. This allowed others to physically see which tasks were on people's plates. It also made for an always visible to-do list for a developer. When tasks were completed, they would receive a big checkmark on the card possibly with the completion date, and be placed back on the board. Any leftover tasks at the end of an iteration would be carried over in the next planning, or moved back into their respective project.

While in the beginning, the system worked well, it suffered because it was not scalable. A large white board can hold a limited number of cards, and a cluttered board is hard to visually scan. In the end it didn't work out.

AgileTrack's interface and features were designed with some of that experience in mind. Particularly, it was meant to be as accessible as a pad of post-it notes for writing new tasks, and as visible as the note stuck to the side of the monitor when working on a task. It was from that idea that the system tray interface was devised.

System Tray

To simulate a post-it note approach, AgileTrack was designed as an application attached to an icon in the system tray/notification area of a user's desktop — usually at the top-right or bottom-right corner of the screen.

The visiblity of the AgileTrack window can be toggled by simply clicking on the AgileTrack icon in the system tray..

AgileTrack's window functions in two modes — framed and frameless. The framed window can be moved and resized, and can be covered by other windows. The frameless window cannot be moved and is always on top while visible. The always-on-top property of the frameless window, allows the interface the approximate the effect of having a post-it note stuck to the side of the screen.

To toggle between framed and frameless modes, right-click the AgileTrack system tray icon (or right-click in the main tab panel of the interface) and select Toggle Window Frame.

AgileTrack's client side interface was designed to function in very limited space. It is recommended that it be positioned adjacent to the system tray icon in the corner of the screen, and resized to take up a small region of the corner. Then after being placed in frameless mode, it will always be on top while visible. This allows a short task list to be quickly toggled, or left visible while working on tasks. If the covered screen real-estate is needed, toggling the window is just a single click.

The system tray approach is very unique for this type of tool and seem at first to be somewhat unnatural. However, the readily available, small space requirements, and unobtrusive aspect of the togglable system tray approach really allows the tool to be something that is used in conjunction with regular development work, rather than as an afterthought or secondary piece of work that competes with the primary work of a developer.

Next Section: 2.3 General Interface