The Ultimate Design Review: Example Action Items
Mike Crowe
This is an example output from the automated design review system described in The Ultimate Design Review: Orchestrating AI with Task-Based Workflows - Part 6 of 6.
This post shows how the AI transforms the comprehensive analysis into a structured, actionable backlog. The system automatically generates specific tasks with clear implementation steps, acceptance criteria, and testing requirements, turning qualitative feedback into a quantitative project plan.
Task Status Report: Design Review 2025-09-06 Action Items
Generated on: 2025-09-07
Overall Progress: 0%
- Total Tasks: 18
- Completed Tasks: 0
- Remaining Tasks: 18
Notes
Action Items Workflow
This request will contain all actionable improvement tasks identified during the design review. Each task will include severity classification, implementation steps, acceptance criteria, and testing requirements.
Last updated: 9/6/2025, 10:01:47 AM
Task Status
1. Action Items Collection (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Collect and organize all action items generated from the design review analysis. This task will be populated with specific improvement tasks as the analysis progresses.
Action items will be categorized by severity (Critical, High, Medium, Low) and include implementation details, acceptance criteria, and testing requirements.
Status: 🔄 In Progress
2. Fix useEffect State Machine Initialization Anti-Patterns (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Remove all useEffect hooks that initialize state machines. State machines should be self-contained and not require external initialization triggers. This affects useEditExpensePage.ts, NewExpensePage.tsx, and reportsMachineContext.provider.tsx.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/3)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Refactor useEditExpensePage.ts | Remove useEffect initialization pattern and make expenseReceiptPageMachine self-contained | 🔄 In Progress |
| Refactor NewExpensePage.tsx | Remove useEffect initialization pattern and make expenseReceiptPageMachine self-contained | 🔄 In Progress |
| Refactor reportsMachineContext.provider.tsx | Remove useEffect initialization pattern and make reportsPageMachine self-contained | 🔄 In Progress |
3. Standardize Effect Pattern Usage Across Services (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Ensure all services consistently use Effect patterns for composition, error handling, and async operations. Remove Promise-based patterns in favor of Effect composition.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/3)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Refactor DownloadService.ts | Convert from Promise-based to Effect-based patterns | 🔄 In Progress |
| Audit all services for Effect consistency | Review all services in src/services/ to ensure consistent Effect usage | 🔄 In Progress |
| Standardize error handling | Ensure all services use Effect error handling patterns consistently | 🔄 In Progress |
4. Move Business Logic from Components to State Machines (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Extract business logic from components and move it to appropriate state machines. Components should only handle UI concerns.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/3)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Refactor EditExpensePageContent.tsx | Move toast notification logic and state management to state machine actions | 🔄 In Progress |
| Refactor navigation logic | Move direct navigation calls from components to state machine actions | 🔄 In Progress |
| Audit all page components | Review all page components for business logic that should be in state machines | 🔄 In Progress |
5. Improve State Machine Architecture and Self-Containment (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Make state machines truly self-contained by removing external dependencies and improving initialization patterns.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/3)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Refactor expenseReceiptPageMachine | Make machine self-contained with proper input handling | 🔄 In Progress |
| Refactor reportsPageMachine | Improve initialization and state management patterns | 🔄 In Progress |
| Add proper error boundaries | Implement consistent error handling across all state machines | 🔄 In Progress |
6. Enhance Type Safety and Schema Validation (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Improve type safety throughout the application, especially in state machine contexts and service interfaces.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/3)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Review state machine context types | Ensure all state machine contexts have proper type definitions | 🔄 In Progress |
| Enhance service interface types | Improve type safety in service layer interfaces | 🔄 In Progress |
| Add runtime schema validation | Implement proper schema validation for external data | 🔄 In Progress |
7. Improve Theme Management in Core App Files (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Refactor theme management to use proper XState patterns instead of useEffect. Move theme CSS variable application to XState actions and remove hardcoded colors.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/3)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Refactor App.tsx theme useEffect | Move theme CSS variable application from useEffect to XState action or custom hook | 🔄 In Progress |
| Remove hardcoded colors in main.tsx | Replace hardcoded background colors with CSS custom properties | 🔄 In Progress |
| Enhance theme state machine | Add theme application actions to the app state machine | 🔄 In Progress |
8. Enhance Error Recovery and Configuration Management (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Add proper error recovery mechanisms and improve configuration management in core app files.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/3)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Add authentication retry mechanism | Implement retry logic for authentication failures in App.tsx | 🔄 In Progress |
| Enhance config.ts validation | Add environment variable validation and type safety to config.ts | 🔄 In Progress |
| Add graceful degradation | Implement graceful degradation for network failures and service unavailability | 🔄 In Progress |
9. Refactor State Machine Actions to Use Actors Instead of Direct Service Calls (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Replace direct service calls in state machine actions with proper actor-based patterns. Actions should not call services directly but should delegate to actors for async operations.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/4)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Refactor downloadReport action | Move downloadReport service call from action to actor in appMachine.ts | 🔄 In Progress |
| Refactor navigation actions | Move NavigationService calls from actions to actors for proper separation | 🔄 In Progress |
| Extract complex event handling logic | Extract complex event handling logic from assign functions to helper functions | 🔄 In Progress |
| Standardize error handling patterns | Ensure consistent error handling patterns across all state machine actions | 🔄 In Progress |
10. Improve State Machine Architecture and Event Handling (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Enhance state machine architecture by improving event handling patterns, reducing complexity, and ensuring proper separation of concerns.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/4)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Simplify event handling logic | Extract complex inline logic from assign functions to dedicated helper functions | 🔄 In Progress |
| Add proper actor for navigation | Create a navigation actor to handle all navigation operations | 🔄 In Progress |
| Improve error recovery patterns | Add consistent error recovery mechanisms across all state machines | 🔄 In Progress |
| Enhance type safety in event handling | Improve type safety for complex event handling scenarios | 🔄 In Progress |
11. Refactor NavigationService to Remove Global State Anti-Pattern (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Replace the global state management pattern in NavigationService with a proper functional approach that can be injected as a dependency.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/4)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Remove global state from NavigationService | Replace global navigateFunction variable with proper dependency injection | 🔄 In Progress |
| Create navigation context/tag | Create a proper Context.Tag for navigation service dependency injection | 🔄 In Progress |
| Update all NavigationService usage | Update all places that use NavigationService to use the new dependency injection pattern | 🔄 In Progress |
| Add navigation service tests | Add proper unit tests for the refactored NavigationService | 🔄 In Progress |
12. Complete DownloadService Implementation (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Implement the actual download functionality in DownloadService instead of the current placeholder implementation.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/4)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Implement report data fetching | Add proper report data fetching logic to DownloadService | 🔄 In Progress |
| Integrate with ExcelService | Connect DownloadService with ExcelService for report generation | 🔄 In Progress |
| Add proper error handling | Implement comprehensive error handling for download operations | 🔄 In Progress |
| Add download service tests | Add unit tests for the completed DownloadService | 🔄 In Progress |
13. Standardize Logging Patterns Across Services (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Ensure all services use consistent logging patterns, preferably Effect-based logging for better composition.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/4)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Audit all service logging | Review all services to identify inconsistent logging patterns | 🔄 In Progress |
| Convert to Effect logging | Convert direct LoggingService calls to Effect-based logging where appropriate | 🔄 In Progress |
| Create logging guidelines | Create documentation for consistent logging patterns across services | 🔄 In Progress |
| Update service logging | Update all services to follow the standardized logging patterns | 🔄 In Progress |
14. Refactor ExcelService for Better Maintainability (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Break down the complex generateExpenseReport function into smaller, more manageable pieces while maintaining the same functionality.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/4)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Extract workbook creation logic | Extract workbook creation and setup logic into separate functions | 🔄 In Progress |
| Extract data processing logic | Extract data processing and formatting logic into separate functions | 🔄 In Progress |
| Simplify main function | Simplify the main generateExpenseReport function by using the extracted functions | 🔄 In Progress |
| Add ExcelService tests | Add comprehensive unit tests for the refactored ExcelService | 🔄 In Progress |
15. Fix Theme Management useEffect Anti-Pattern in RootApp.tsx (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Remove the useEffect hook for theme management in RootApp.tsx and move theme CSS variable application to XState actions.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/4)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Remove theme useEffect from RootApp.tsx | Remove the useEffect hook that applies theme CSS variables | 🔄 In Progress |
| Create theme application XState action | Create a proper XState action to handle theme CSS variable application | 🔄 In Progress |
| Update app state machine | Add theme application logic to the app state machine actions | 🔄 In Progress |
| Test theme management | Ensure theme switching works properly without useEffect | 🔄 In Progress |
16. Standardize Styling Approaches Across UI Components (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Ensure all UI components use consistent styling approaches, preferably design system tokens over direct Tailwind classes.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/4)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Audit all component styling | Review all UI components to identify inconsistent styling approaches | 🔄 In Progress |
| Convert direct Tailwind to design tokens | Replace direct Tailwind classes with design system tokens where appropriate | 🔄 In Progress |
| Create styling guidelines | Create documentation for consistent styling patterns across components | 🔄 In Progress |
| Update component styling | Update all components to follow the standardized styling patterns | 🔄 In Progress |
17. Extract Complex Business Logic from UI Components (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Move complex business logic from UI components to custom hooks or state machines to improve maintainability and testability.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/4)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Extract DashboardTable logic | Move complex table configuration logic from DashboardTable to custom hooks | 🔄 In Progress |
| Create table management hook | Create a custom hook for table state management and configuration | 🔄 In Progress |
| Extract admin filtering logic | Move admin filtering logic to a separate utility or hook | 🔄 In Progress |
| Add component logic tests | Add unit tests for the extracted logic | 🔄 In Progress |
18. Improve Layout State Management with XState Integration (🔄 In Progress)
Description: Replace local useState for layout state management with proper XState integration to ensure state synchronization.
Status: 🔄 In Progress Subtask Progress: 0% (0/4)
| Subtask | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Create layout state machine | Create a proper XState state machine for layout state management | 🔄 In Progress |
| Replace useSidebarState with XState | Replace the useSidebarState hook with XState-based state management | 🔄 In Progress |
| Update layout components | Update AppLayout and related components to use XState for state management | 🔄 In Progress |
| Add layout state tests | Add unit tests for the new layout state management | 🔄 In Progress |