Button behavior in Wizards: Skip and Unable to proceed

[kkenna3]

Background

Hi, 2 questions on handling actions in Wizards:

Skipping steps
We have some steps in our wizard that are optional - the fields are not using the "Required" indicator and we've detailed out the option to skip in the paragraph of the step, but we've gotten internal feedback that it wasn't clear. We have not had a chance to test with users.
Should we keep the Back, Cancel, and Next buttons and rely on the paragraph copy? Or should we add a 4th "skip" button to give a clearer indication they can skip?
Example step

Unable to proceed
We also have steps where if the user hasn't done a previous action, they're unable to continue our flow. One example is that a user can choose a brand type A that requires another product to be reviewed & approved, or choose brand type B that doesn't have prerequisites. This means we can notify the user in copy, but can't block them from starting the wizard.
Once they get to this step for type A, they can either change their brand type or exit the flow. We are currently handling this with a CTA to the prerequisite flow. If we keep the next button active, we have 2 primary buttons and a modal that prevents them from proceeding. Should we disable the next button instead?
Figma

Feedback

Ensure we're handling the actions in wizards properly and it will be clear to users their possible options

Stage of design

No response

Research

No response

Relevant links

No response

Are you looking for visual design support?

• Yes

Additional Information

No response

[TwilioPasteBot]

Disclaimer: This is a very experimental bot using OpenAI's GPT-4. The answers may not be correct, a human will review the answer and update it if necessary.

---

Sorry, I don't know how to help with that.

I did do a search though, and I managed to find these other Discussions that might be similar or related to your question. Give them a read to see if they answer your question. If they do, head back here and update this discussion and mark it as answered, pointing others to the related discussion:

• Required fields and disabled buttons in form and wizard experiences (updated: 11/20/2023, similarity score: 88%)
• Wizard accessibility considerations - Answer (updated: 08/31/2023, similarity score: 88%)
• Side sheet drill-in or expansion (updated: 08/19/2024, similarity score: 87%)

[krisantrobus]

Hi @kkenna3 thank you for joining our office hours. Here is the recording for reference.

Let us know whether you move forward with the optional labelling in future.