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I am building a wizard experience to guide a user through a complex setup flow. In the flow, some steps require more space and some require less space. Does it make sense to change the modal size on each step or to keep it the same?
Could you justify the answer with a reason?
If you have a modal that's split among steps, users often think of the modal as a persistent view, with steps embedded.
Using a persistent size keeps the unity of the view, and you can size the modal as needed, relative to the viewport. The most important UI areas are consistent orientation ('How many steps, and where am I?'), and available actions ('How do I advance / go back?'). Keep them steady...
For denser, scrollable steps with more inputs, you can have a visible scrollbar, and enable the Next button when required fields are filled.
Don't change the modal size! In wizard flows, keep in mind that your next, previous, skip, finish buttons will be the primary way to navigate. So it's better to keep them in a consistent place such as the bottom right. As users go through your wizard they will get used to looking for this navigation in a certain part of the screen. If your modal box size keeps changing, the position of these buttons will not be consistent, and would take users slightly more effort to look for the new position.
If you got too much content on a single step, consider splitting it across another step or two.
