Next or Previous?? a UI question....

Jul 29, 2023

So, you have a slide with a number of options on it... each option opens a new layer.

You are expected to go through each of the options to complete the slide.

On the layers, would you give the user a NEXT button (to suggest they are moving to the NEXT bit) or would you give them a PREVIOUS button (to suggest they are visiting the PREVIOUS page to select another option)?

 

4 Replies
Judy Nollet

If each option looks like a completely different slide, I'd probably make each one a slide, and use the Player's PREV and NEXT to go through them. 

I use layers mostly for tab-like interactions, that is, when the base has a set of buttons, each button opens a layer, and the user can still see and click the buttons from the layers. 

However, when it makes sense to keep the content grouped on one slide with layers, I generally use fat-arrow buttons on the sides to move forward and back. I don't label those. But if I were going to label them, I'd probably use BACK and CONTINUE.

Then again, with the new dialog/modal layers, it would work to use buttons like the Player buttons, for a consistent look. 

Depending on the content on the base, you may also need a button to return to that.

Christy Tucker

I agree with Judy. If you want to keep it all as layers, and they look like layers with a popup, then you can use an X in the upper right corner to close the layer.

A general UX principle is to not have the same button or action do two different things. So, if Next usually advances to a new slide, then it's confusing to have Next suddenly behave differently.