Usability: Should the ENTER key close a wizard form as OK even if the focus is not set on the OK/DONE button?

Question

Hello everybody!

I have the in my opinion odd request to close a wizard form as Done or OK if Enter was pressed on the keyboard even if the OK/DONE button is not focused.

In my opinion that would be a usability mistake. For example: In the wizard you may have multiple controls, buttons, check boxes, multiple line controls and they all have a different behavior on actions from the ENTER key. And don't forget the other buttons in the navigation of the wizard, what if they are focused?

Should these controls don't react on Enter like expected before? Should they do their actions but in other cases where Enter does no further action for the control it should close the form == inconsistent?

I think that is a typical request where the needs of one person would help him but confuse many other.

In my opinion Wizards are very special because they are not only made to make things easier but also very often focus on people with less experience with the functionality of an application. So I take every request serious and try to look into all arguments for and against the request.

Is my point of view to narrow? Are there some usability studies or guidelines especially for Wizards to backup my opinion or maybe proof me wrong?

Thank you very much!

Michael

Answer 1

I would be of the same opinion, perhaps mention it to the client and let them use the final version in both modes. I guess you have to give them what they ask for when they are paying.

Answer 2

To me this also seems to be an odd request but as Paul says, if the client wants it, then the client gets it. However from a usability/comprehension standpoint, I would make the border of the ok/done button much thicker then normal so that it stands out a bit and maybe indicate to people that it has special behaviour. Also I would perhaps make a note in the dialog/wizard box that hitting enter will cause the wizard to close as if the OK/Done button had been pressed. While the one user may know that hitting enter will close it, unless someone else is specifically told, they will not be expecting that behaviour.

Answer 3

Well, here's the thing: there are two kinds of users you have to take into account here.

First kind of users are the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers (e.g., people who have been using computers in the 70s/80s) who are accustomed to pressing Enter to move to the next field. These are the ones who learned how to use computers in terminals/consoles and enter means you're finished typing on that field and would move on to the next.

Second kind of users are those who were weaned on Windows. These people are used to pressing the Tab key to move to the next field. Pressing enter to them means they are done with the whole thing.

So which convention should you follow? That will depend on whether you're targetting the first or second type of users, the environment (Windows or Web?), and the OS.

If you're targetting Windows forms, it is much advisable to be consistent to the OS (e.g., letting people use Tab instead of Enter) for form entry. In the web, you're in a quandary, since Enter is trapped by the web browser as a submit event.

In the end the only useful advice I can offer is to try it out with your target customers and see whether they prefer Enter over Tab.

Answer 4

Is this request perhaps because the UAT that was undertaken on the wizard involved users that weren't aware that pressing ENTER will have the same effect as clicking the button?

If when the final page of the wizard is displayed, the 'Finish' button is already highlighted (as I would expect) that maybe it's a matter of giving the user some cue that they can also press ENTER at this point.

If you take Google for example, I seem to remember that if you tend to systematically type your search term in and then click the 'Search' button with the mouse, a message is displayed at the top of the search results that kindly hints to you that you can also just press ENTER. Obviously, this is not something that can easily be done in your case because this is the last page of the wizard, but maybe this is the sort of thing that your client is trying to get you to engineer around?

Answer 5

I think you should have a finish page to facilitate this. If the user presses enter by mistake the worst is that he won't finish the wizard, only go to the next page (which may be the finish page). This is good for situations where nuclear bombs are controlled by said wizards.

On the finish page pressing enter would finish the wizard (and blow up Iraq, bring down a satellite, or erase Jimbob's farm).

If the user can re-run the wizard I don't think it would be disasterous if they accidentally finished it.

Remember, wizards should never take any action until they are finished, in case the user cancels or such. Confirmation dialog boxes on a finish are tedious and I will hunt you down if you use them, I think once the user has finished the wizard he is pretty sure about his intent.

Answer 6

In response to your previous comment on my post. Pressing enter actions the control and moves onto the next one. When you reach the last one pressing enter moves to the next screen. That is what I would expect.

Sorry I missed that part :).

Answer 7

Maybe the client has good reasons for it. Imagine the following situation: A screen with lots of optional fields that gets opened/closed a lot and where data accuracy is not really critical.

Think of a little program that pops up every half hour to ask you what you have been doing, for what client and maybe some notes so it can gather this info and generate your timesheet.

Being able to open up the screen, enter the info and close it all really quick and with as little hassle as possible is way more important than the accuracy of the data.

I can imagine lots of situations where being able to confirm the field without having focus can be usefull.

Answer 8

Educate your clients. Show them some documentation as why that suggestion might not be a good usability practice.

Some reputable website will work best, as clients will usually believe a third party before believing you. After all, to them you are probably just being lazy and don't want to work more.

If the client still doesn't concede, then just do what they want, and warn them that it is not the good thing to do.

Although in your case, the "good thing to do" seems a little on the gray area.

Answer 9

I think the key is to test. You can't really guess what your users will find comfortable, you have to watch them try it. Especially since there are multiple incompatible standards you could follow, you are just going to have to see if this change works for most users in your audience.

Answer 10

I would argue that you could possibly use this functionality to move forward through the wizard but ONLY if no other action had been taken on that page.

The moment a field is completed or a button clicked/highlighted or the cursor is moved from the default position, the Enter functionality should revert to that of the standard OS.

As others have said, clearly this would only work if those using the wizard were made aware of this as part of their application training, but it might prove useful for moving quickly through un-used pages of the wizard to get to where the user needs to be.

Answer 11

Doesn't matter. Choose and be consistant in all your applications