Is It Done Yet? A pizza delivery tracker turned into a project communication tool

Project-management software is exceptionally good at helping teams manage work. That does not necessarily make it good at communicating progress to everyone waiting for that work.

Clients, customers, executives, contractors, volunteers, and other stakeholders often have no reason to see task assignments, dependencies, internal notes, sprint boards, ticket histories, or dozens of notifications. Yet the alternatives are usually just as inefficient: recurring status meetings, manual emails, spreadsheets, or messages asking some variation of, “Is it done yet?”

The challenge was to create a dramatically simpler layer between the people doing the work and the people waiting for it.

The inspiration came from an experience millions of people already understand: the Domino’s Pizza Tracker. Customers do not need access to the restaurant’s operational systems. They see a handful of recognizable stages and immediately understand where their order stands.

I applied that same interaction model to project work. The objective was not to create another Jira, Asana, or Monday competitor. It was to create a standalone communication tool that could represent virtually any process as a simple visual sequence.

The central product requirement became straightforward: any project, any timeline, anyone should be able to understand it.

The product has two distinct audiences with very different needs.

The first is the project owner: a freelancer, agency, contractor, marketer, designer, developer, consultant, nonprofit, small business, internal team, or anyone else responsible for moving work through a process. This user needs enough control to define milestones, change progress, customize presentation, manage access, and distribute the tracker.

The second is the viewer: the client, customer, manager, stakeholder, donor, family member, or anyone waiting for the outcome. This person needs almost none of those controls. They primarily need to know what has been completed, what is happening now, and what comes next.

That distinction drove the product.

Most project tools try to accommodate both audiences inside one increasingly complex interface. Is It Done Yet? separates them. Owners receive a management workspace. Viewers receive a deliberately simplified status experience.

The broader insight was that the actual industry does not matter. A website redesign, construction job, grant application, custom order, photography project, marketing campaign, repair, event, and manufacturing job all share a common underlying structure: they move through stages.

Instead of defining what those stages should be, the application lets users define the process themselves.

The positioning centered on a deliberately narrow job:

Make project status immediately understandable.

Rather than presenting Is It Done Yet? as another comprehensive project-management platform,  this became a communication layer that can complement whatever system already manages the actual work.

Any project. Any timeline. Anyone.

That positioning influenced several strategic decisions.

Milestones are completely customizable rather than tied to software development, marketing, construction, or another vertical. Timelines are milestone-driven rather than forced into a particular duration. Public viewers do not need accounts. Owners can distribute trackers through links, embeds, QR codes, downloadable HTML, or static images.

Visibility also needed to accommodate different real-world scenarios. Projects can therefore remain Private, be shared through an Unlisted link, or become Public. Optional tracker passwords add another layer when a shareable project still needs controlled access.

The product was also intentionally designed not to replace existing workflow software. A team can continue running its project through whatever internal tools it prefers while giving outside stakeholders a much simpler view.

That kept the product focused on a specific pain point instead of allowing feature growth to turn it into the same complexity it was designed to avoid.

I developed the product as a full working web application rather than a visual prototype.

The Builder allows users to name a project, create and reorder milestones, add descriptions, customize colors, preview the result, simulate progress, and save the tracker. Saved projects move into a management environment where additional controls become available for dates, layouts, visibility, passwords, sharing, embeds, exports, and project lifecycle management.

Four responsive presentation options were created: Timeline, Vertical Steps, Cards, and Minimal. Each uses the same underlying project information while adapting it for different contexts and screen sizes.

Sharing became a major part of the implementation. Owners can create standalone public views, Full or Compact website embeds, QR codes, SVG or PNG snapshots, and downloadable HTML wrappers that continue loading the live tracker.

Supabase provides PostgreSQL storage, authentication, row-level security, secure shared-data functions, password protection, and realtime notifications. Next.js, React, and TypeScript power the application interface, while Vercel hosts the production deployment at tracker.altocitylimits.com.

The interface was repeatedly simplified during development, including tighter workspace navigation, responsive preview controls, compact Back/Next project controls, and contextual onboarding tutorials that first-time users can skip or relaunch from Help.

The largest lesson was that reducing complexity can require substantial complexity behind the scenes.

Making a tracker look obvious to a viewer required decisions about database security, authentication, realtime updates, responsive layouts, public and private access, password handling, embeds, export formats, mobile behavior, and project lifecycle states. The engineering work exists specifically so the final interaction does not feel like engineering.

The project also reinforced the importance of designing around the audience’s actual question rather than automatically giving them access to the system that contains the answer.

A stakeholder asking, “Where are we?” does not necessarily need another software login. They need the answer.

That insight extends well beyond this particular application. Good product design often comes from identifying information trapped inside a complicated operational system and building a clearer experience around the small portion of that information another audience actually needs.

Is It Done Yet? will continue developing around that principle. Future additions can improve collaboration, project updates, layouts, integrations, and analytics, but each new capability has to pass the same test:

Does this make project progress easier to communicate without making the product harder to understand?