In a web form filled out directly by respondents, there should be a way to cleanly exit the form without requiring the user to click “Submit”.
Use case:
- A prospective respondent answers a screening question.
- A calculation determines the prospective respondent is not suitable for taking the survey.
- The person is taken to a note (“Thank you, but …)” with a “Exit” button.
- The person clicks “Exit”.
- The person is redirected to a “You can close this window. No data has been submitted.” page … and no data is submitted.
Rationale:
- The data remains uncluttered by records of no interest.
- The user does not see a “Submit” button and thus will never accidentally click Submit and see a “Thank you for submitting” message. Such a message may be confusing or even distressing to them. (For example, they may believe that submitting a survey will result in a health team visiting them and raising suspicion among neighbors.)
Closest Current Technique:
A ‘note’ question informing the user they are not eligible and instructing them to close the page. In the event they click ‘Next’ instead of closing the page, they are taken to a final ‘note’ question again instructing them to close the page, but with required set to True (this prevents the form from being submitted). If they close the page all is fine, but if they click “Submit” they receive a somewhat alarming error message, and instructions in red that “this field is required”.
Suggested Implementation:
A note question with ‘exit’ in the constraint (or maybe appearance) column. When displayed, the note’s button says “Exit” instead of “Next” or “Submit”. When clicked, the page is closed (and redirected if appropriate) and no data is submitted.
