Forms // They need clearer buttons and directions

[Chad-Smith]

As a project admin I occasionally come across others that are confused by the terminology and steps that go into a Form. I've also heard similar from numerous other project admins. This is due to a few factors.

1. When editing a Form, the Submit button is ambiguous. Am I submitting just what has been completed so far, or am I submitting it for other reasons? This is unlike other ACC features like Issues and Meeting Items which make it very clear that you are managing the process by way of a Status value.

This gets a little more varied when you add Section Assignees into the Form, where the blue button now reads 'Submit Section'. This is at least a little more informative, unlike a generic Submit button.

2. With the big blue Submit button on the right, with a wide screen display it is very easy to miss the not so obvious and faint 'Changes save automatically' on the left. Unless the user knows that the information they are entering is being saved, then they think they need to Submit it, which circles back to the user's thought process of what I am submitting it for.

3. The red Discard button doesn't make sense. If the Form has already been automatically saved, then what am I discarding? It's not so much a discard process, as much as it is now an undo process. Discard suggests that changes have not yet been made.

4. And finally, when someone does actually Submit the Form and they receive the confirmation prompt, it still isn't clear why it is being submitted? Sure, no one will be able to make any changes, but what does that otherwise mean for the Form? Is it now Closed?

Obviously a more experienced user will ultimately know what this all means, but someone new to ACC will not.

I guess what it boils down to is that Forms don't quite have the same level of intuitiveness that features like Issues and Meeting Items do. It would be great if some extra UX work went into this.