Monday, April 23, 2018

forms - Best way to indicate that progress autosaves with local memory?


I'm building an app that allows users to take small self-assessments (more or less a quiz). The app doesn't require login credentials or a signup, as user progress is auto-saved (almost instantaneously) in local storage.


Currently the app will display a live point counter in the upper right that updates whenever a user creates/updates an answer.


Screenshot


During some initial user testing some users were concerned about whether or not the app was saving their work. How do I remedy this?


The site is still very much in beta, but here's a link so you can check it out first hand.


Link


Edit (Jan 20, 17): Implemented a lot of the advice here including adding a saving indicator and changing some of the copy. Thank you all for the guidance


Screenshot


Link




Answer



Auto-save pattern work well when there is a fear of losing a lot of work


Often the issue of not knowing if your changes are saved is linked with the fear of losing you have invested a lot of time in. This aspect is addressed by always giving a confirmation that the work is saved. See Slack and Google docs for a good implementation of this pattern.


Maybe your users are more concerned about how their work is saved


However, the task related to your web page does not seem to involve so much time or efforts. If we assume this to be true, then your users are maybe not concerned about loosing their work, but more about how it is saved by the system. It's another problem and I would recommend testing again with a modified version clearly stating that the save is local. You will then be able to confirm/infirm this assumption.


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