I'm developing a flow for a web app where the user creates some content to post on the Internet. If the user decides not to finish the process, should the app warn or alert the user, that the content will be lost? How annoying or useful is this warning for the user? If the user is a regular one, will be she/he sick of this after a period?
Thanks and best regards.
I think in order for anyone to properly answer this question you would need to provide more context and narrow your questions. (Context is King in UX)
When you say the users will be creating some content you need to examine the scale of that content.
Ask yourself: "How much effort is going into the content they are creating?"
If you think your users would be upset if they lost that work the went into that content's creation then a warning that might save them that frustration is justified.
When you say how annoying will this warning/alert be? This is entirely contextual and will depend on the presentation of the warning/alert.
Ps warnings and alerts are different things and you should examine which it is you actually need here.
I think before anyone will be able to provide you with an applicable answer you need to reexamine the problems you are trying to solve and ask more specific questions.
Otherwise, you are just asking for someone to do your job for you, without giving them enough information to do so.
Is the action irreversible - i.e. a user will lose their content for good if they decide not to finish? Then you should provide an alert letting the user know. The option to "never show me this alert" again may be provided, but you would also want a way for the user to change their mind again and reset that alert.
Is the content auto-saved? Then you may not need an alert - just a way for a user to see and edit their draft.
Can the content be saved by the user? Then you may want to ask if the user wants to discard their content, or save it. Then you would still need a way for a user to see and edit their draft.
Alert should not be to annoying, Ive seen such in several CMS system.
In addition, you can prevent frustration if you make alert only when user has filled i.e. more than 3 fields in the process. That way someone that accidentally clicked to create content and goes away right away - wont be annoyed.
Also, having auto save, and then some tab with "drafts" and with info on "last edited" for each draft could do, if you have resources for that.
Wordpress posts is a good example for all of theese processes, after all - exactly this (good UX) is the way they have build their popularity in last years.
