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I am currently working on a collaborative project and me and another developer are having trouble deciding on wether to keep the user on the edit product page after editing the product or redirecting the user back to the product list.

The first implementation would always keep the user on the edit product page unless he clicks back. Both success messages or a potential error message would show on the edit product page after saving.

The other implementation would redirect the user to the list of products and show a success message if successful or if there is an error it would keep the user on the edit product page and display the error.

Which method would be the best and most logical implementation?

Could the answer vary depending on how often products are edited and if so, why?

Please note that I am using product as an example here, I believe this is still relevant when editing other things such as pages in a cms system for example.

3 Answers 3

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This is the exact study we've done in the past. What I've learned is both patterns work well, however more people tend to 'save' partial progress, especially if managing product information or updating a CMS page.

Based on the above, best practice is to keep the user on the same page prior to them hitting 'save' button. I have also seen the pattern where two buttons are implemented: 'save' and 'save & close'. 'save & close' button took you back to the list.

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In our app we have some edit forms in popups. There are 3 save buttons in the form of icons on the toolbar. Save, SaveAndNew,SaveAndClose.

The user can decide exactly what behavior better suits his needs at that moment.

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Nah, just stay on the "editing" page.

When you "edit" something (a wiki page, the novel you're writing, contact item, or anything else) there's no reason at all it would jump to "some other page."

(Whether that "some other page" is "the next higher up list", or the "home page", or whatever.)

Sure, when you edit something - just stay exactly where you are. If the user wants to hit back, up, or anything else, the user will do that.

And don't forget ... it's not 1950! All "Editing" is now simply live.

You just click the photo, diagram, text or whatever it is .. and change it. And, it's changed. There's no "Confirm?" alert or "Save button" or anything like that. You just make changes and, of course, obviously, they are saved (everywhere, to the cloud, locally - everything) all the time as you type or draw.

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  • I prefer to make all the changes and after I'm happy with the result, hit Save. If the saving is done automatically and you have high visitors site, it's possible to make mistake and for example google indexes the page or some visitors see wrong information. But I agree that you should stay on the editing page. Mar 11, 2017 at 15:36
  • Hey Nach. Funnily enough I'm just doing a system for a client like you say - it's sort of a "very large page" where you make changes, and as you say it's more appropriate to only save "all at once, at the end". I would suggest though that is quite unusual today. Cheers
    – Fattie
    Mar 11, 2017 at 16:47

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