Save their progress

[govuk-design-system]

Also known as: save and return, save and continue

What

Help users save their progress in your service, so they can continue later.

Example on 'Make a claim to an employment tribunal'

Why

Anything else

• Read the draft guidance on Dropbox Paper

Related items:

• Create account

[edwardhorsford]

I think this will probably need a few different solutions - depending on whether the service has accounts / verify / any other identifying key, and the sensitivity of the data returned.

Without accounts, another way to retrieve an application might be magic links / sms authentication - though we'd need to check on the security of these mechanisms.

[millieg]

I'm working on a service which uses Verify to authenticate the user, then asks for lots of personal information. Currently I can only find a form pattern which allows a 'Save and continue' for the user to complete all in one session, but there may be cases where the user needs to stop and come back later - if this is the case, it would not be good security to keep them logged in. What is the preferred pattern for this? is it just a sign out link in the header, (which isn't particularly findable), or do we give them a bit more handholding such as a secondary button or link to save and come back later?

[timpaul]

Hi Millie. I think you're right, you would need to offer more than just a sign-out link. If the user is already authenticated then I'm guessing their progress is being saved automatically - so this is more to reassure them that they won't lose work and to encourage them to sign out?

I'd start by considering where in the transaction and where on the page they are likely to be when they need to stop, and placing a call to action there. A task list page can be a useful place to send people when they sign back in - to remind them of what they've already done.