I'm working on a project that creates shops managed by a single user.
Besides the required data (eg: shop name) there are a number of optional configurations:
- Theme settings
- Shop settings
- Other info (eg: social media accounts)
- Etc.
I'm wondering if there is any research on the best approach to tackle these optional configurations.
Here are the possible ways I see to tackle this:
1) Force users to see the optional fields
I could add more fields to the main form or add more steps with the fields marked as optional. This seems like the most annoying option for users as it has the bigger cognitive load.
2) Let users decide if they want to fill those now or later
Instead of showing all the optional fields, I could ask users if they'd like to fill more details now or later. This seems less annoying but OTOH users may not understand the implications and I'm forcing them to make decision.
3) Simply ignore optional settings and show some tips afterwards
Just force users to fill the minimum required fields and leave the optional settings with their default value. Once the shop has been created I can show something in the UI (eg: "Next steps") to let them know what extra stuff they could do.