Kanban board

Problem Context

• Work items move through explicit workflow states such as Backlog, Ready, In progress, Review, and Done.
• Teams use the board to limit active work, find bottlenecks, choose what to pull next, and coordinate ownership.
• Cards may represent issues, tasks, incidents, requests, content items, deals, or operational work.
• The board may support drag and drop, keyboard moves, swimlanes, grouping, sorting, filters, automation, detail panels, and reporting.
• WIP limits, hidden filters, stale work, blocked dependencies, and status mappings can make the board misleading if not shown directly.

Selection Rules

• Choose Kanban board when work items progress through shared workflow states and column movement is the primary interaction.
• Use table when the main task is comparing fields, sorting records, editing cells, or exporting structured rows.
• Use list view when users need a compact queue and do not need several workflow states visible at once.
• Use calendar view when date placement, duration, and availability matter more than workflow state.
• Use timeline when users need a chronological history of what happened rather than current workflow control.
• Use activity log when users need evidence of recorded actions rather than a mutable work-management board.
• Use dashboard layout when users need aggregate metrics and charts rather than card-level workflow movement.
• Show WIP limits and counts for active columns; first and final columns may use different rules because they represent not-started and completed work.
• Make filters, slices, sorting, collapsed swimlanes, hidden columns, and permissions visible so counts and WIP signals are not mistaken for the whole board.
• Avoid Kanban board when columns are arbitrary categories without pull rules, status semantics, or flow decisions.
• Use board status changes only when the backend status, automation, and reports update consistently with the visible card movement.
• Provide non-drag move controls before claiming the board supports keyboard and assistive technology workflows.

Required States

• Default board state with columns, card counts, WIP limits, visible filters, selected board, and at least one card per active workflow stage.
• Empty column, empty board, loading, failed-load, offline, permission-limited, filtered, and hidden-card-count states.
• Card detail, selected card, focused card, editing card, and card action menu states.
• Drag preview, keyboard move, move pending, move success, move failed, invalid destination, and undo states.
• WIP under limit, at limit, over limit, and WIP-limit-not-enforced states.
• Blocked, stale, dependency, due soon, overdue, priority, assigned, unassigned, and automation-pending card states.
• Swimlane, grouped, sorted, collapsed group, hidden column, and sliced-by-field states when supported.
• Responsive stacked or lane-switching state where column names, counts, WIP limits, and card identity stay visible.

Interaction Contract

• Each column represents a workflow state or selected column field value, and moving a card updates the same value shown in details, reports, and automation.
• Card identity, title, owner, priority, and blocked state remain stable across filters, sorting, grouping, movement, and detail views.
• Moving a card previews the destination, status change, WIP effect, automation side effects, and invalid-destination reason before or immediately after the move.
• When WIP is exceeded, the column count and limit are highlighted and the board explains whether the limit blocks the move or acts as guidance.
• Filters, collapsed groups, and hidden columns disclose hidden-card counts so WIP and throughput signals are not misread.
• Keyboard and assistive-technology users can move cards between valid columns without pointer drag.
• Undo or recovery is available for accidental moves unless the product has a stronger confirmation or audit requirement.
• Completed, blocked, canceled, and unmapped statuses are mapped to appropriate columns so board completion claims match backend truth.

Implementation Checklist

• Define card schema: id, title, workflow status, assignee, priority, due date, age in column, blocked reason, dependencies, labels, source link, and edit permissions.
• Define column schema: id, name, mapped statuses or field values, WIP limit, count, color/category, done semantics, hidden state, and allowed transitions.
• Implement drag and keyboard move paths with the same validation, status update, focus return, undo, and error feedback.
• Model WIP at limit, over limit, hidden filtered cards, stale cards, blocked cards, collapsed swimlanes, sorted boards, and automation-pending moves.
• Keep column headers sticky or repeated enough that wide boards preserve context while horizontally scrolling.
• Show filters, slices, grouping, sorting, hidden columns, and hidden-card counts near the board header.
• Test long card titles, many columns, empty columns, overloaded columns, blocked cards, keyboard movement, mobile lane selection, and screen-reader names.
• Ensure analytics and reports consume the same status mapping as the board, not a separate visual-only column model.

Common Generated-UI Mistakes

• Using Kanban columns as decorative categories rather than workflow states.
• Allowing visible card movement without updating the underlying status field.
• Hiding WIP limits, hidden filtered cards, or collapsed swimlane counts.
• Making drag and drop the only way to move work.
• Treating a sorted board as manually ordered without explaining the sort rule.
• Mapping Done, Blocked, or Canceled statuses to the wrong column and misreporting completion.
• Showing blocked and stale work with no visual or textual distinction.
• Using Kanban board as a dashboard for aggregate metrics without card-level flow decisions.

Critique Questions

• What workflow state does each column represent, and which backend status or field value owns it?
• Can users tell card count, WIP limit, over-limit state, blocked cards, stale cards, and hidden filtered cards?
• Does moving a card update status, reports, automations, and details consistently?
• How do keyboard users move a card and recover from a bad move?
• What happens when sorting, grouping, slicing, or hidden columns change the visible board?
• Would table, list view, calendar view, timeline, activity log, or dashboard layout better fit the task?