Hot answers tagged wizard
17
The location of the buttons should never change. The user will be expecting the location of the "Next"/"Finish" button to stay constant so that they can keep the mouse still and click through accepting the default options.
If you've got some pages with a lot less content than others then it could be that there's too much content on the other pages. Either ...
14
My first suggestion would be to try to eliminate as many steps as possible. Really think about the flow, what's required, etc.
Some tips to make a long process more friendly:
Show a progress meter of completed steps
If possible, allow users to jump back and forth to go back and correct a previous entry
Give real-time feedback when an entry doesn't conform ...
10
The wizard style makes it clear that all steps must be completed before you can save the data. It guides the user through the process and, if done correctly, makes sure that they don't miss out any vital information. This is particularly true if you don't enable "Finish" until the last page of the wizard.
Just having the tabs hides potential required ...
10
Wizard vs. Tabs
Use a Wizard, when you want to guide the user through multiple requried steps.
Use Tabs when the user can select an arbitrary tab, make changes, and then commit them without looking at the other tabs.
I always find "Tabs with Back/Next" awkward. I understand the idea to provide a little "ramp" between novice and advanced users, but in most ...
10
Option 1 by far.
Please tell them that mouse distance is only one of many UX factors that need considered.
Scan-ability - Knowing that the buttons are always at the bottom will cut out a lot of cognation and time for the user.
Who says the users curser will start from the top? Think about where your curser is right now? is it near the top? or the middle ...
9
Depends on what you are trying to create.
The main difference is that wizards generally imply sequentially order and require user to fill the required fields while tabs usually works with any order, but there are other issues to consider:
Tabs
Random order.
Better if the user try to edit
existing information.
Better for intermediate/advanced
users.
...
9
The Previous button should not act like the Back button. The Previous button means "go to the next-lowest numbered step"; the Back button means "go to the screen you were on before this one". In any given context they may have the same effect or different effects.
So here are two paths the user could take.
Step 1 Next→ Step 2 Next→ Step 3 Previous→ Step 2 ...
8
Use wizard when:
have ability to split process in well
balances wizard steps collect and
process data from previous step to
use in next step
want to complete and save some steps, to restore after cancelling
Live examples: iPage domain registration
Use form when:
can put everything on single page without a mess
can't split process due to technical ...
8
Any time that you as the designer have to ask the question "Is it intuitive"... it's not. Keep it intuitive, keep it simple, use existing conventions in your favor. Users know the function of Radio Buttons. They are a intuitive convention. Use them. Do not add confusion to users by reinventing the wheel.
7
This are the most important I can think of:
Break up the operations constituting
the task into a series of chunks.
Previous and Next buttons.
Sequence Map that shows where you are in the steps at all times
Read more on this topic at the Designing Interfaces Wizard page.
7
Your first example looks more like tabs than like a wizard. It's a bit confusing because wizard has the strict order of steps as opposed to tabs where you can visit sections in any order.
Your third example could hardly be called wizard because the classical wizard shows only one step. In your case it's something like a form with groups of controls.
So, ...
6
I agree with Kostya, the tabbed one doesn't look like a wizard and is confusing.
My personal preference is to not show at all the particular page they're on. But I still like to provide some feedback on how many steps there are. I'd display Step 1 of 5, or show a nice visual progress bar, e.g.
6
You want to keep it as simple as possible. The way you have it with the 'Back' and 'Next' buttons requires additional thought by the user as you have realized ("why do I need to press two buttons for each question - yes and next?")
A possible solution to this is to allow them to go back directly to previous questions if they want to make a change. Also, as ...
5
I would show all three steps. but title them in such a way as to make them look simple - in particular make step 3 look like it's going to be a single button click.
Titles inform the user upfront about what to expect. The terminology hints at being quick and easy. The final step acts as the goal.
Step 1 should be simple information. Step 2 might have more ...
5
In a wizard where it's possible to get back to an earlier stage, I don't see any reason why the progress indicator shouldn't be clickable. It's not a question of "a display rather than a control", it's "a control as well as a display". It's always a display. If you make it clickable, you provide an alternative navigation method, which is more efficient than ...
4
Assuming you’re talking about a desktop app with fixed-sized dialog-type windows with no scrolling, I don’t think you need to worry about filling each page to the same amount. It’s more important to divide the task into small cohesive steps that are consistent with the user’s ability to understand the task.
If you do this, I don’t expect users to be ...
4
Option 1 by a mile.
It looks nicer and the reading speed will be far higher. It's much quicker to take in that all three buttons say exactly the same thing. There is no confusion about whether the third button is an option or a continue button.
With a small target like this continue button the time to move the mouse is dominated by the acceleration and ...
4
Short answer: the previous button should not act as the history's back button (if I understand your term correctly). Next and previous should navigate up and down the numerical sequence of steps.
In scenarios like this, you should generally try maintain consistency in the user's expectation for how the system will work. In the case of a linear series of ...
4
I have been struggling with the exact same problem. In my case, I had 10 steps and depending on which choices you make along the way, some steps are not applicable, and some have a different content and title.
Let me first explain how I solved my specific case. After many discussions we basically decided to split up the wizard in steps and substeps. We ...
3
What makes the process complex is not that there's so much data but the assumption that it has to be entered all at once. Creating a festival should be a three step process:
Create a blank festival.
Edit the festival until it's complete.
Publish the festival.
The trick is getting the user to understand that the form doesn't need to be completed the ...
3
In such cases, I use group tabs to organize the forms (so the user can directly access the page he needs), but also provide Next: xyz (xyz being the name of the next form) buttons on each page so a user who prefers the wizard-like approach can click through the pages.
3
This of course depends on your definition of "wizard" and the user group and the task you're trying to perform - so a generic answer isn't really possible.
To give one example: I've successfully used the tabbed style in a context where the data the user enters wasn't necessarily linear A->B->C->D - but often was. So the normal "happy" path would be ABCD, ...
3
If the process/wizard itself can't be simplified or in some other way reduced, I'd suggest at a minimum indicating exactly where in that process the user currently is.
You can do this with something as simple as "Step 6 of 10", or more elaborately by showing a flowchart with the current step highlighted etc.
3
I would put each step into a tab, in such a way that the tabs that are accessible at any point are enabled, the others disabled.
In this way, the user can move freely around a correct mistakes without having to go several steps back etc. The enabling of the tabs still stops the user to go to steps that cannot be modified yet, because there is still ...
3
If you have considered all the alternatives mentioned in other answers and have decided that the wizard has to be big then you should consider the following:
Split the information up into logical sections that are not too long
Title each section clearly but try and keep it short. If you need it add an additional description below the title to explain ...
3
In addition to other tips mentioned, use smart defaults for everything you possibly can. If you already have their email address, you can probably take a stab at their name, potential user name, possibly workplace, country of residence (or get that from their IP address or system settings). Here's a small example.
Which brings up another source of ...
3
For me the key to the answer is in your question: "because it is rather easy to figure out that you must make your initial choice before going further". Users shouldn't have to figure out things. Don't make them think* - just make it clear.
Update after Matt's comment: What I also don't like is that when you're on step 2, you don't see that you can click ...
3
An important distinction is that an installer will require the user to have admin permissions on the target computer while a simple executable file doesn't. If your audience is made up of people who do not have admin permissions, the non-installer option allows them to access your application without requiring a system admin to come and install it for them. ...
3
This is a good article about the wizard pattern http://ui-patterns.com/patterns/Wizard
The best is your third option, to have Next and Back buttons at the bottom right, because the user will commonly use them, he will mainly use the Next button, and he will use the Back button if he forgot something or want to check something. The Cancel button should be at ...
3
Interesting question.
The first option which I would prefer would be to combine step 2 and step three such so that that users can directly add information there. A example of that would be the online insurance form which might have only five steps in the navigation pane but might require you to fill in additional details if you added information such as ...
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