Interesting question, Tamlyn. As strong a proponent as I am for left-justification of page-level push buttons with the primary action being leftmost in a dialog box acting as a secondary window, I agree with the majority of responses you've gotten here for wizards: for left-to-right languages - where the population stereotype of going forward is to the right - Back should be left of Next. Also different from the standard dialog, I would also consider further reinforcing the wizard model of a sequence or chain of panels by placing the Back button on the left side and the Next button on the right side of the panel, as opposed to adjacent to one another.
Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tamlyn Rhodes Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 10:40 AM To: IxDA Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Next & previous button order As discussed by LukeW in Web Form Design, it's best to have the primary action of a form be the first button that the user sees. For left-to-right languages this means having the primary action on the left and any secondary actions on the right (see A in this illustration http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia/2366430953/ ). In a multi-page 'wizard' style form, the primary action is usually 'next' or 'continue' and the secondary action is 'back' or 'previous' but at the same time the conceptual model for such forms is that the screens are arranged progressively from left to right (the ipod/iphone interfaces even animate the transition). In such situations is it better to have the secondary action, 'back', to the left or the right of the primary action, 'next'? Or is there a better solution? Cheers, Tamlyn. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 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
