[IxDA Discuss] Corrected post: Wizard Navigation to manage a long process -

[Shekhar Bagawde]

Hi,
I don't know if this would be a good solution as such: but if you are using
gmail and composing a mail - you have three choices (as buttons) 'Send',
'Save Now' and 'Discard'.
Earlier, when you would compose a mail, there was an auto-save-as-draft kind
of feature. the mail was saved as a draft automatically (without any
page-refresh).
A message was displayed - 'Message saved'. This feature is now replaced with
the button 'Save Now', may be they changed it after some user testing or so.

There is a good article on 'Wizards' at -
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/wizards_and_guides_principles_of_task_flow_for_web_applications_part_2
(by Bob Baxley  on 2004/02/25)



On 6/19/07, Prachi Sakhardande <prachisakhardande at gmail.com > wrote:
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> I just worked on a similar application, however this one is used more
> frequently, almost on a day-to-day basis
> The buttons I have used are 'Save Draft' and 'Next'. While 'Save Draft'
> does
> an explicit save, clicking 'Next' is akin to Save and Continue. I dont
> inform the users that the 'Save' has happened when they click 'Next', but
> if
> for some reason, they were to close the application and return at a later
> time, the unfinished instance would be sitting in the 'Drafts' in the
> dashboard. This may not be obvious for first time users, but from the
> second
> time onwards, they would know that the 'Save' is automatically happening
> on
> clicking 'Next'.
>
> Another thought: What about a small 'Saving Data...' script after the user
>
> clicks 'Next' and before the 'Next' step loads?
>
> regards
> Prachi
>
>
> On 6/20/07, Mark Richman <markjrichman at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I am building an application that requires the user to go through at
> least
> > one very time-consuming step. This step is somewhat akin to building a
> > complex org chart, and such, the user might want to perform intermediate
>
> > saves during it. However, this is only the first of the 4 or 5 steps
> that
> > the user must accomplish before the task is complete, and the purpose of
> > a button that simply reads 'Save' is not as clear as I would like, since
> I
> > want to direct the user to the next step of the application when they
> > complete this piece.
> >
> > My company wishes to use a wizard to drive the user through the process
> --
> > and I think this is a good idea since it is not something most users
> will
> > do
> > very often. More likely, they will struggle through it once, refine it,
> > and
> > not touch it again for another six months, at which time they will need
> to
> > be reimmersed in the process. So some good handholding is a requisite.
> >
> > How have other designers designed navigation buttons when a process
> > included
> > a difficult and time-consuming step? One solution that seems plausible
> is
> > to
> > have both a 'Save' and a 'Next' button, where 'Save' would perform an
> > intermediate save, while 'Next' would save and move to the next step.
> > However, since 'Next' doesn't explicitly state a save, a message might
> be
> > needed to let the user know for sure that his work has been saved -- and
> I
> > want to avoid making the user read more than she needs to.
> >
> > Another option might be to call the buttons 'Save Only' and 'Save and
> > Continue'; wordy but more to the point.
> >
> > As you can see, I am spinning my wheels. Any ideas? While a wizard might
> > not
> > be the only solution, a lot of handholding will be needed here and it
> > seems
> > like a good chocie to me.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Mark Richman
> > Intelliverse
> > ________________________________________________________________
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>
>
> --
> cheers,
> Prachi
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-- 
cheers,
Shekhar