Wizard pattern vs. Accordion pattern in a long form

Question

Wizard pattern (multi-step) vs. Accordion pattern in a single long form?

Q1. What is the best pattern to chose for the following scenario

Scenario In an Admin console, Admin have to create an account and assign product and users.

Q2. What would be best way to define the task First - Create account and stop Second - view the details of account Third - Add products and users

OR Try to accomplish all the steps in one go using wizard pattern.

I am trying to retain law of continuity and Hick's law here by using Wizard. But open for suggestions.

I have found one similar topic on this page big form VS steps/wizard, but not much of deciding or convincing answers or any research findings are shared. If anyone have any research based findings, then please share. If you can share the respective article / research findings / blogs urls that will help.

Thanks. Look forward for the discussion.

Answer 1

I think rather than looking at the scenario you should look at the design principle and rationale between the use of wizard versus accordion patterns and work out what interaction or behaviour you want to achieve. The main take home points for me would be:

• Is the process linear or can people skip steps or save and come back to it later?
• Do you have a lot of content, very little content or variable amounts of content? What would be the best way to present the optimum amount of information to the user?
• Where does this fit into the rest of the page design, like help information or guidance tools/widgets?