Issue Taxonomy

Use this taxonomy to classify issues found during dogfood QA testing.

Severity Levels

Critical

The issue makes a core feature completely unusable or causes data loss.

Examples:

• - Application crashes or shows a blank white page
• - Form submission silently loses user data
• - Authentication is completely broken (can't log in at all)
• - Payment flow fails and charges the user without completing the order
• - Security vulnerability (e.g., XSS, exposed credentials in console)

High

The issue significantly impairs functionality but a workaround may exist.

Examples:

• - A key button does nothing when clicked (but refreshing fixes it)
• - Search returns no results for valid queries
• - Form validation rejects valid input
• - Page loads but critical content is missing or garbled
• - Navigation link leads to a 404 or wrong page
• - Uncaught JavaScript exceptions in the console on core pages

Medium

The issue is noticeable and affects user experience but doesn't block core functionality.

Examples:

• - Layout is misaligned or overlapping on certain screen sections
• - Images fail to load (broken image icons)
• - Slow performance (visible loading delays > 3 seconds)
• - Form field lacks proper validation feedback (no error message on bad input)
• - Console warnings that suggest deprecated or misconfigured features
• - Inconsistent styling between similar pages

Low

Minor polish issues that don't affect functionality.

Examples:

• - Typos or grammatical errors in text content
• - Minor spacing or alignment inconsistencies
• - Placeholder text left in production ("Lorem ipsum")
• - Favicon missing
• - Console info/debug messages that shouldn't be in production
• - Subtle color contrast issues that don't fail WCAG requirements

Categories

Functional

Issues where features don't work as expected.

• - Buttons/links that don't respond
• - Forms that don't submit or submit incorrectly
• - Broken user flows (can't complete a multi-step process)
• - Incorrect data displayed
• - Features that work partially

Visual

Issues with the visual presentation of the page.

• - Layout problems (overlapping elements, broken grids)
• - Broken images or missing media
• - Styling inconsistencies
• - Responsive design failures
• - Z-index issues (elements hidden behind others)
• - Text overflow or truncation

Accessibility

Issues that prevent or hinder access for users with disabilities.

• - Missing alt text on meaningful images
• - Poor color contrast (fails WCAG AA)
• - Elements not reachable via keyboard navigation
• - Missing form labels or ARIA attributes
• - Focus indicators missing or unclear
• - Screen reader incompatible content

Console

Issues detected through JavaScript console output.

• - Uncaught exceptions and unhandled promise rejections
• - Failed network requests (4xx, 5xx errors in console)
• - Deprecation warnings
• - CORS errors
• - Mixed content warnings (HTTP resources on HTTPS page)
• - Excessive console.log output left from development

UX (User Experience)

Issues where functionality works but the experience is poor.

• - Confusing navigation or information architecture
• - Missing loading indicators (user doesn't know something is happening)
• - No feedback after user actions (e.g., button click with no visible result)
• - Inconsistent interaction patterns
• - Missing confirmation dialogs for destructive actions
• - Poor error messages that don't help the user recover

Content

Issues with the text, media, or information on the page.

• - Typos and grammatical errors
• - Placeholder/dummy content in production
• - Outdated information
• - Missing content (empty sections)
• - Broken or dead links to external resources
• - Incorrect or misleading labels