How do you indicate progress to users in a multi-step form?

What do you think of the following form design which I've prepared?

• there's a progress bar in the top


• on the right side the steps are listed, and every time the current state is indicated by selection

alt text http://kepfeltoltes.hu/110210/form_progress_indicator_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

Do you use anything else? Is this sufficient? (in this current case the form is designed for a bank)

Answer

...or is it already to much? Ask yourself: why do you need a progress indicator?

Typically, you indicate progress so the user can estimate how long it will take him, whether s/he can finish in a given time. I would try to minimize "context" elements.

Progress Bar

Compared to the other options, that makes sense only in the following cases:

• the time requried for individual steps/pages varies significantly (more than, say, a factor of 3), and that variance is user-independent


• you have per-page progress, e.g. which radio buttons were already filled. In most cases, that would be just a nice gimmick, not really necessary.

Step i / N

This is enough if the user doesn't have a chance to jump to individual steps, and can anvigate back/forward.

Jump List

A jump list of individual topics is a definitive plus if the user can skip certain steps, or a non-sequential processing order is a common use case. (I can't think of one that doesn't sound constructed).

Static List

A static list (i.e. not for navigation, just an indicator) still helps in some cases. First, it gives the user an estimation that can be much better than a Step i/N or a progress bar. Second, it gives hints what the user needs to complete all pages. If the penultimate step is "Credit Card details", I know that I do need a credit card.

Knowing the requirements is especially important when I can't save an incomplete sequence and continue later. A static list is less indoctrinating than a page explaining.

A static list does not make much sense as preview, if depending on user input, you branch and skip significant parts. A jump list still makes sense in that case if it allows you to go back, ad maybe preview the next steps.

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There are more complex scenarios, such as filling out tax forms, where you need to give detailed feedback that some fields are missing or invalid. That can be mixed very well with a progress indicator.