"next 10 entries" at bottom of page

[Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen]

Still relevant as of today.

[Christian Reis (kiko)]

Still relevant as of today.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

As I just explained in report 161, I'd rather not do this -- people would do some translations, then click the link to continue, and lose their work. With the navigation links at the top, people are unlikely to have gone through the page, and if they have, they're deliberately choosing to scroll away from "Save".

[Thomas M. Hinkle (thomas-hinkle)]

> As I just explained in report 161, I'd rather not do this --
> people would do some translations, then click the link to
> continue, and lose their work. With the navigation links at
> the top, people are unlikely to have gone through the page,
> and if they have, they're deliberately choosing to scroll
> away from "Save".

To me, this is evidence that there are two usability bugs, rather than a solution to this bug.

Bug 1: No "Next" button at the bottom of the page 2.
Bug 2: Hitting "Next" after making changes does not offer to save changes.

Obviously making the "Next" button harder to get 2 makes Bug 2 less urgent, but it doesn't solve bug 2, since a user still could hit "next" and lose their work, and it creates Bug 1 for users who scroll through the list and see no need for changes (a relatively common scenario, I'd imagine).

IMO, the best solution would be to offer the user a chance to save if they his "next" or "prev" after making changes but before saving.

Tom

[Dafydd Harries (daf)]

Having a "next 10 entries" link that offers a chance to save would require Javacript, which I think it's best to avoid if possible.

Good browsers will tell you if you have unsubmitted changes to the form if you click on a link, but I suspect it's not wise to depend on this.

I think it would be OK to add links and add a notice saying "make sure to click 'Save and Continue' if you have made any changes" or similar.

MPT?

[Christian Reis (kiko)]

I don't think the problem here is the lack of notice -- "users don't read".

We could implement this using a button..

[Thomas M. Hinkle (thomas-hinkle)]

Making a nice dialog come up offering the user a chance to save would require javascript (this is how e.g. gmail handles this).
However, a less application-like but still functional version could offer the user a chance to save as part of the normal forms interface:

1. User hits "next" or "prev"
2. Server-side script checks to see if there are changes to the fields on the page.
3. a. If there are, spew out a webpage showing the changes the user has made and asking whether to save them or not before continuing.
3. b. If there aren't, go ahead to the next or previous page.

Something along these lines might work, no?

Tom

[Carlos Perelló Marín (carlos)]

That implies that instead of links, we have there buttons so every time you click on "Next" or "Prev" you submit the form.

If it's ok from the usability point of view, Don't think we have any problem implementing it that way. Matt?

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

I'm against anything that puts up a confirmation alert. We could have a "Continue Without Saving" button instead, but where would we put it?

I'm leaning towards repeating the top navigation bar well underneath the "Save & Continue" button.

[Jonh Wendell (wendell)]

Why is evolution here?