[thelist] stupid user interface usability question: how to design a parallel set of pages that users with to click 'save' before going on

[Lee kowalkowski]

On 19/07/06, ÕÅí|Îä <zhangweiwu at realss.com> wrote:
> Hello. I have designed my user interface this way:
>
> gopher://sdf.lonestar.org/g/users/weiwu/interface_example_01.png

Wow, gopher!  Cannot see it.  :(

> This user interface turns to be a bad design, the top row of 'tabs'
> gives users impression that they could just click the other tab without
> saving the content and later click 'save' to save changes made on all
> tabs, but actually, each page of content must be saved separately,
> because the 'tabs' are simply anchors graphiced to be like tabs. If you
> click on second tab, you get prompted if you wish to navigate away from
> this page *without* saving, this again create usability trouble, some
> user click 'OK' thinking the modification is then saved, but actually
> the modification is discarded.

Why?  Just make the tabs save the data automatically.  I.e: make them
form submit buttons.

-- 
LK