Pattern 35: Back button **
 AKA: Go back one step (Tidwell)

Back to Diagram 1 - Getting started Back to Diagram 2 - Useability Back to Diagram 3 - Adding detail Back to Diagram 4 - Workflow/security

View sensitizing image - tbd

You understand the need for users to be able to GO BACK TO A SAFE PLACE (34).

People make mistakes. Especially on a workflow site, the user should always be able to return to the previous step, undoing any commitments they may have made.

Therefore

Do not disable the browser back button. Design transactions so that they are ‘undo-able’. Provide built-in checkpoints in transactions that users can return to.

Ensure that there are NO MODES (40). DISPLAY THE OPTIONS (79). There should be NO FRAMES ON PUBLIC SITES (27). Employ THE RHETORIC OF ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE (20).

Contributors and sources
Richard Dué, Jennifer Tidwell, Detlef Vollmann

Discussion - forces - known uses

Consider arrival at the home page of a site and clicking on the About Us link. Clicking on the SITE LOGO AT TOP LEFT (24) takes one to the home page (as it should). Clicking the back button at this point will take the user forward to the About Us page. This will confuse because the browser sees a straight line of interaction and the users and designers probably think of the site as a network or hierarchy.

For example, the wu icon on this page (on the wu web site) takes you back to the diagram but you can also use the browser back button.

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