One Icon, One Comment

When Labels Are Just Text

Fecit’s Task screen has a lot of fields. Start time, due date, duration, location, difficulty, priority, target, expectation, caution, satisfaction, reflection, web links, labels, photos. That’s what happens when you try to cover the entire cycle from planning to retrospection.

The problem was that all these fields were plain text labels. “Start Time”, “Location”, “Difficulty”… When it’s just words lined up, your eyes don’t know where to land.

Adding Icons

The fix was simple. A 16px icon before each label.

• Start/due time → Clock
• Duration → Timer
• Location → Map
• Reminder → Bell
• Difficulty → Gauge
• Priority → Flag
• Target → Bullseye
• Expectation → Light bulb
• Caution → Warning
• Satisfaction → Smile
• Reflection → Mirror
• Web links → Link
• Labels → Tag
• Photos → Camera

With icons, each field’s nature registers before you even read the text. Scanning becomes faster.

One detail worth mentioning: icons have different visual weights. Outlined icons like the bell or map look larger than filled ones at the same pixel size. So we applied scale(0.875) inside the SVG while keeping the viewBox at 24x24. The hitbox stays the same; only the visual shape shrinks slightly.

We built the icons for mobile first, then copied them to desktop. Mobile renders them as React Native SVG components; desktop imports them as raw strings via ?raw and renders with dangerouslySetInnerHTML. Different platforms, same icons.

Comments on Tasks

After the icon work, we stepped back to ask whether Fecit covers enough of the “getting things done” process. Planning, preparation, execution, retrospection — the big picture was there. What was missing was logging during execution.

Sometimes you want to jot down a quick note while working on a task. “Materials are delayed”, “Need to change approach”, “Done with step 3”. When you look back later, these notes bring the context back vividly.

We initially considered building a separate “log” feature, but realized the comment API already existed on the server — it was powering comments on Overviews and the free board. We just needed to connect it to Tasks.

A speech bubble icon in the Task detail top bar takes you to a dedicated comments page. We made it a separate page rather than embedding it in the detail view, because the detail screen already has plenty of fields — adding a comment thread would make it too heavy.

Comments can serve as personal notes or as team communication in shared projects. Same structure, different context.

Small Changes, Big Difference

Adding an icon isn’t a feature. Nothing changes in behavior. But the screen feels different. Comments are the same — just one line of text, but that line becomes a thread to pull on during retrospection.

The app is getting complex, but the default stays simple. Show only what you need, when you need it. That direction hasn’t changed.