Let me rephrase what you are describing, Meredith: in the workflow diagram for this wizard, you have two "if" statements in the row: "Was the path B completed before?", "Does user want to make another round of the path B?".
The provisional completion check marks along the path B answer "yes" to the first question and can be cleared or made permanent in the answer to the second question. I would recommend to make the provisional check slightly desaturated to indicate that they are conditional, only suggest one of the two possible paths. Oleh On Nov 30, 2007 12:25 PM, Oleh Kovalchuke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The check marks for the B path ar provisional, they serve as a reminder > that the work has been done already. If user choses to proceed with another > round along path B, the check marks for that path are cleared, and the user > proceeds on her merry way along the path B one more time). > > Oleh > > > On Nov 30, 2007 11:55 AM, Meredith Noble <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > Thanks for this, Oleh. > > > > This would work well if Task B was a complete once and only once sort of > > thing. What I don't think I managed to get across was that it's fully up to > > the user each time whether they want to go through Task B again or not. > > > > If they've never done Task B before, they are *forced* into Task B to > > create a widget to work with. > > > > However, even if they *have* done Task B before, and have widgets to > > work with, they may still choose to define a new widget to work with – one > > that's not already in their list. > > > > Unfortunately (I think) your great design only allows for completing > > Task B once and only once. Am I right? > > > > Sorry for leaving that important detail out! > > > > Meredith > > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* Oleh Kovalchuke [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > *Sent:* Friday, November 30, 2007 1:15 PM > > *To:* Meredith Noble > > *Cc:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > *Subject:* Re: [IxDA Discuss] nested, multi-step progress bars > > > > Here is one possible solution for the progress bar. > > > > Progress bar in the beginning of the wizard: > > > > * A step1* > > A step2 > > B step1 > > B step2 > > B step3 > > B step4 > > A step3 > > > > Progress bar at the branching point (B path has been completed): > > Replace star (*) with "done" check mark. > > > > *A step1 > > * A step2* > > *B step1 > > *B step2 > > *B step3 > > *B step4 > > A step3 > > > > Progress bar at the branching point (B path has not been completed): > > > > *A step1 > > * A step2* > > B step1 > > B step2 > > B step3 > > B step4 > > A step3 > > > > Progress bar past the branching point (working on B path): > > > > *A step1 > > *** A step2 > > *B step1 > > *B step2* > > B step3 > > B step4 > > A step3 > > > > This progress bar keeps users informed about future steps at all times as > well as educates them about the connection between pathways A and B (builds > the conceptual model of the workflow) for the future similar tasks. > > Oleh > On Nov 30, 2007 9:02 AM, Meredith Noble <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > Hi all, > I'm looking for some ideas on how to design progress bars for some > nested flows. > In the application I'm designing right now, we have two flows for two > related tasks, task A and task B. Task A has 3 steps, and Task B has 4 > steps. Task B can be done independently, without task A, but MUST be > completed before Task A can be completed. > The trick is that we allow people to enter the flow for Task A, and then > jump out to Task B if they need/wish to. > In other words, instead of just doing A1 -> A2 -> A3, some users instead > > go through the steps: A1 -> B1 -> B2 -> B3 -> B4 -> A2 -> A3. > Has anyone ever designed progress bars for something like this before? > We can't predict in advance whether or not a user will want to jump out > to Task B from Task A, so we can't simply include those steps in our > progress bar off the bat. The other solutions I can envision are: > a) Dynamically updating the progress bar to include 7 steps after > the user can indicated a desire to go to Task B (maybe visually > indicating that some are substeps, so as not to overwhelm the user) > b) Simply replacing the Task A progress bar with the Task B > progress bar until Task B is finished, then going back to the Task A > progress bar afterward > Phew, I hope I've been clear here. It's hard to explain without a > concrete example! > I can see shortcomings in both of these solutions so I'm hoping someone > might have a suggestion for something else elegant that I've missed... > Thanks all, > Meredith > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Meredith Noble > Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. > 416-598-7770, ext. 6 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, > GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- > Oleh Kovalchuke > Interaction Design is the Design of Time > http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm > -- > Oleh Kovalchuke > Interaction Design is the Design of Time > http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm > -- Oleh Kovalchuke Interaction Design is the Design of Time http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... 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