Is it really creating a good experience if we implement the back button inside the app? If yes, then how? I was unable to understand why users wouldn’t like to use the browser back button. Many new modern web apps are implementing this function, but if we see websites like blogs and news websites are not implementing this feature, it gives a better experience for their visitors.
-
Could you show us an example? This could be for many reasons, so it depends on teh context– DevinCommented Jul 7, 2022 at 19:31
-
This is a general question. I see that nowadays many web apps implement the back button within the app. Somewhere we needed a back button for the wizard interface or checkout process. But I see many of these apps are used just for page navigation. Even Gmail also have back button.– Rishi ShahCommented Jul 8, 2022 at 4:28
Add a comment
|
3 Answers
I don't think it's about whether the user likes it or not, but about accessibility.
When this type of statement is made, such as the one raised in the question, it's usually thought of as users accustomed to working or constantly using mobile applications, but it's not something real.
There's a very high percentage of users who only use the essential or necessary buttons within the action they want to perform, ignoring the rest, not only their function but also their existence.
However, redundancy often occurs in situations where the Back button is similar in design, size, and position to the one on the device.
For situations like the one described in the question, the warmth of an added button with a similar function to an existing one on the device is to make it stand out prominently. This not only enhances the existence of the feature but also helps untrained users to immediately discover that it exists.
answered Jul 7, 2022 at 10:41
It is, most of the time an issue of legacy code or implementation. In theory, the back button of a browser and the app's back button should work the same but in many cases, this is not the case.
In a lot of apps, let's take for example filling a form across a wizard:
- using the back button in the app will take you to the previous step in the wizard while maintaining the users entered data
- using the back button in the browser might take you back to the page before starting the wizard and losing the user-entered data.
I agree that it is for both accessiblity as well as for some techinical navigation flow.
For technical part think like this that you are navigating through multiple pages in a form, but you do not want the data to be stored on the web browser temp files as they are sensitive and encrypted, you might want a back button of its own, as otherwise browser back button will take you to the previous different page and not previous form page.
Another example could be you are using an iframe and there is no way you can go back without having its own back button.
On accessiblity part both on mobile and desktop people have started using behavioural science and principles like where is my eyball at that point of time doing an ctivity, how far do I have to move my mouse to do an activity, how easy it is to reach to it etc.
