Is there a better best practice to use to signal to a user the steps they need to take, as well as which step they're on?
1 Answer
I think this is about finding the best design pattern for the information that you want to display, so it is not so much whether there is a better best practice but what the 'progress chevron' is best suited for.
When you have a series of steps that are short, linear and involve no other external dependencies, I think this is a good pattern that provides clear communication of the interactions expected/involved on the interface. You may of course like to tweak the styling if the chevrons are not your thing, but in terms of a design pattern this solves the problem quite well.
When you have longer, non-linear and complex dependencies being introduced, I don't think this pattern is suitable for communicating this to the user. I think this is where you will see a navigation or visually more sophisticated strategies being applied to communicate this to the user. However, I don't think it is a good idea to build these types of flows into a website (or mobile app), hence I don't think there are too many examples lying around.
answered Jan 2, 2018 at 23:38
