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I have a checkout flow - breadcrumb UI component at the top of my page that looks like this.

enter image description here

The labels are different from what have been shown.

A form is associated with each step in the flow. It has to be completed , But the user now will also be able to see the second form without filling the first. ( kind of sneak peak )

As of now my breadcrumbs are clickable and any form can be seen independently.

Is this a good UX ?

If no - What other possibilities are there for the user to get an idea of how much he has to fill in ?

If yes - Is making the breadcrumb clickable a good idea when compared to a prev/next button ?

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    This may look like a breadcrumb, but it isn't. A breadcrumb reveals the current path within a hierarchy; whereas yours is a step menu.
    – Izhaki
    Oct 24, 2016 at 13:21
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    Which real problem you are trying to solve with that approach? Breadcrumbs aren't a good mean to support sequential flow. The Wizard pattern does.
    – Alexey Kolchenko
    Oct 24, 2016 at 18:47
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    This is a wizard and used when there is a procedure involved for filling up the information. There are 2 types of wizards 1) non-modal 2) sequential. In non-modal, a user can jump among any step, but in sequential it is not possible. Without completing the first step, user is not allowed to go to 2nd step.
    – Deekshit-CUA
    Oct 24, 2016 at 18:48
  • Thanks for the term step menu , I was always confused what to call it.
    – Sooraj
    Oct 25, 2016 at 6:31

1 Answer 1

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I would argue no, this is not good UX. For the following reasons:

  • Why would a user checkout after getting an order confirmation? Typically, order confirmations are the very last step in online transactions, with order numbers, shipping information, etc.
  • Why would a user want to "preview" checkout before browsing?
  • In your current UI, you define a progression between steps, signifying that one needs to be completed before the other. Even if there is a functional reason for my second question, this wouldn't be apparent to the user in the current interface.

Let me know if you have any clarifying details so I can modify my answer.

P.S. I agree with Izhaki, your progress bar is not breadcrumbs UI. Breadcrumbs UI tracks your history, and doesn't tell you where you're going before you get there.

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  • To be precise, breadcrumbs don't show your history--they show where you are in the site's hierarchy.
    – maxathousand
    Oct 27, 2016 at 22:42
  • Yes, you are correct. I've always interpreted it as a history trail, rather than explicitly a hierarchy.
    – Alan
    Oct 28, 2016 at 6:25

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