[IxDA Discuss] Behavior of "Previous" button

[Peyush Agarwal]

Hi Bryan,
We've tried various approaches over the years, and our current best compromise is to implicitly save the data upon discrete events or at regular intervals. If the user closes the browser, then upon next login we present a list of incomplete tasks or open applications so they can continue or explicitly destroy it.

Doing so however, is heavily dependent upon capabilities of the tech stack, not just communication between the browser and the next layer. So there are systems where we were able to get this, and others where we weren't.

Of course, none of these issues arise when the user uses one of the exits we provide - save for later, submit, cancel etc.

-Peyush

-----Original Message-----
From: bjminihan at nc.rr.com [mailto:bjminihan at nc.rr.com] 
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 7:48 AM
To: Peyush Agarwal
Cc: ixd-discussion
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Behavior of "Previous" button

I agree with your point about what tech can deliver.  Web pages
introduce a quirk here in their asynchronous nature.  Behaviors that
prevent you from closing a browser to keep you from destroying data
can annoy and irritate folks, who don't usually have to "confirm"
anything before closing a browser.  On the other hand, if you
temporarily save data while the user is working, how do you (reliably)
detect when they've left the system and want to save what they've
done, or when they truly want to give up - many folks treat "close my
browser" the same way they treat a "cancel" button.

- Bryan


> Of course what you want and what tech can deliver often diverge.
> Your implementation situation may force you to do some excess
> butlerization (would you like me to save or discard your data,
> sir) where the user might just be thinking 'just deal with it,
> freak, and leave me alone!'
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> -Peyush