Secondary navigation in software wizards
Mary C. Burton, Daina Pupons Wickham, Lori Phelps, Kelly A. Spain, Janna M. Crews, Nicki Rich · 1999
The authors conducted a study of three approaches to secondary navigation in software wizards. Secondary navigation refers to user interface navigation controls that are in addition to the standard "Back" and "Next" buttons in a software wizard. We tested three secondary navigation controls: table of contents, tabs, and drop down menu. The goal of this study was to assess the benefits of secondary navigation controls in terms of user success with and user preference for the controls in the context of a software wizard. Thirty participants across three IBM sites tested prototypes of wizards with secondary navigation controls. We found that study participants were more successful with and preferred the table of contents secondary navigation control, participants continued to rely on the Back and Next buttons for navigation in the wizard, and participants preferred a secondary navigation control to having no secondary navigation control in a wizard.