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Conflict resolution vs Conflict state vs Review before submit vs Autosave recovery

Use conflict resolution when users must step through one or more detected conflicts, decide what survives, preview the resolved result, and commit or defer decisions.

Decision dimensions

Dimension Conflict resolutionConflict stateReview before submitAutosave recovery
UI or UX UI + UX - Guided workflow for reviewing and committing conflict decisionsUI + UX - Competing-version resolution stateUI + UX - Final editable answer summary before committing a transactionUI + UX - Recovery surface for failed or uncertain background saves
UI guidance Show a durable resolution workspace that lists every unresolved conflict, exposes the current conflict, names each version source, and separates choose-local, choose-remote, merge, save-copy, skip, and commit actions.Show both competing versions near the affected object, field, paragraph, file, row, or branch with source labels such as Your edit, Server version, Mina's edit, Target branch, and Current published value.Render a single review page immediately before commit with a clear title, grouped answer sections, readable key/value rows, per-answer or per-section Change actions, skipped optional answers when meaningful, and a primary button whose label names the committed action.Show a persistent recovery surface when autosave did not protect the latest work, naming the affected field or section, last server-saved time, local copy status, and available recovery actions.
UX guidance Use conflict resolution after conflict detection when users must make one or more explicit decisions before a record, document, branch, import, or synced object can continue.Use conflict state when multiple valid changes overlap and the system needs a human, rule, or review workflow to decide what survives without losing work silently.Use review before submit to give users one final chance to verify and correct captured answers before a transaction is sent, paid, published, applied, or otherwise committed.Use autosave recovery when users need to preserve effort after background saving fails, stalls, conflicts, expires, or only stores a local copy.
Good UI A field report resolver shows 2 of 3 conflicts remaining, displays Your offline value and Mina's server value for the current field, offers Keep local, Keep server, Merge both, Save copy, and shows a reviewed result before Commit resolutions.A field report says Conflict on supervisor comment, shows Your offline edit from 11:06 beside Server edit by Mina at 11:07, and offers Keep mine, Keep server, and Merge comment.A claim review page has Applicant, Contact details, Evidence, and Declaration sections; each row shows the captured answer and a Change link with hidden context such as Change email address.A claim form says Household income answer failed to autosave at 10:42, keeps the typed answer visible, and offers Retry save, Copy answer, Restore last saved, and Continue after saved.
Bad UI A conflict page has one Accept recommended button for all fields and no way to inspect discarded values.A save banner says Something went wrong and only offers Retry after another user changed the same field.A final page says Check your answers but shows only a paragraph and a Continue button with no answers, section headings, or change links.A small toast says Could not save and disappears while the form still shows a green Saved label.
Good UX A user resolves the supervisor comment by merging both versions, keeps the server contact number, saves the local safety note as a copy, reviews the final report, then commits with an audit summary.A user tries to sync an offline field report, reviews only the two changed fields, merges one comment, keeps the server contact number, and commits a resolved version.A user changes their phone number from review, lands on the phone page with the old value pre-filled, saves, and returns directly to review with other answers preserved.A user loses network while writing a long answer, sees it is saved on this device only, reconnects, retries the same value, and continues after the timestamp updates.
Bad UX The system silently resolves all conflicts by newest timestamp and only shows a success toast.The app silently keeps the newest server value and deletes the user's local note.A user selects Change address, edits one field, then has to repeat every later page before finding the review page again.A user submits after seeing Saved, but the newest section was failed and never reached the server.
Best fit A conflict has been detected and a user must choose, merge, save-copy, skip, or commit a result.Concurrent users, devices, branches, or background jobs changed the same object or location.A user has provided multiple answers and should verify them before a consequential submit action.Autosave failed, stalled, expired, or became uncertain while users still have meaningful local work.
Avoid when The system can safely merge non-overlapping changes without user judgment.Only one operation failed and there is no competing valid version.The task is a single low-risk field with clear inline validation and an obvious submit action.The product does not use autosave or local draft persistence.
Required state Conflict list state with unresolved count and current conflict position.No conflict state after automatic safe merge.Initial review state with grouped captured answers, relevant sections, and explicit submit action.Clean saved state with current server timestamp.
Accessibility burden Expose conflict number, total count, source labels, field names, and resolution status as text, not only color or diff markers.Use headings and text labels to name each side of the conflict; do not rely only on red/green diff colors.Use headings that make the review task explicit, such as Check your answers before sending your application.Announce failed, local-only, retrying, recovered, and conflict states through status text without repeating every save attempt.
Common misuse Marking conflicts resolved before the user reviews the surviving value.Treating a conflict as a simple retryable save error.Using a review page that contains no captured answers.Leaving a green Saved label visible after a failed or stale autosave.

Conflict resolution

UI or UX
UI + UX - Guided workflow for reviewing and committing conflict decisions
UI guidance
Show a durable resolution workspace that lists every unresolved conflict, exposes the current conflict, names each version source, and separates choose-local, choose-remote, merge, save-copy, skip, and commit actions.
UX guidance
Use conflict resolution after conflict detection when users must make one or more explicit decisions before a record, document, branch, import, or synced object can continue.
Good UI
A field report resolver shows 2 of 3 conflicts remaining, displays Your offline value and Mina's server value for the current field, offers Keep local, Keep server, Merge both, Save copy, and shows a reviewed result before Commit resolutions.
Bad UI
A conflict page has one Accept recommended button for all fields and no way to inspect discarded values.
Good UX
A user resolves the supervisor comment by merging both versions, keeps the server contact number, saves the local safety note as a copy, reviews the final report, then commits with an audit summary.
Bad UX
The system silently resolves all conflicts by newest timestamp and only shows a success toast.
Best fit
A conflict has been detected and a user must choose, merge, save-copy, skip, or commit a result.
Avoid when
The system can safely merge non-overlapping changes without user judgment.
Required state
Conflict list state with unresolved count and current conflict position.
Accessibility burden
Expose conflict number, total count, source labels, field names, and resolution status as text, not only color or diff markers.
Common misuse
Marking conflicts resolved before the user reviews the surviving value.

Conflict state

UI or UX
UI + UX - Competing-version resolution state
UI guidance
Show both competing versions near the affected object, field, paragraph, file, row, or branch with source labels such as Your edit, Server version, Mina's edit, Target branch, and Current published value.
UX guidance
Use conflict state when multiple valid changes overlap and the system needs a human, rule, or review workflow to decide what survives without losing work silently.
Good UI
A field report says Conflict on supervisor comment, shows Your offline edit from 11:06 beside Server edit by Mina at 11:07, and offers Keep mine, Keep server, and Merge comment.
Bad UI
A save banner says Something went wrong and only offers Retry after another user changed the same field.
Good UX
A user tries to sync an offline field report, reviews only the two changed fields, merges one comment, keeps the server contact number, and commits a resolved version.
Bad UX
The app silently keeps the newest server value and deletes the user's local note.
Best fit
Concurrent users, devices, branches, or background jobs changed the same object or location.
Avoid when
Only one operation failed and there is no competing valid version.
Required state
No conflict state after automatic safe merge.
Accessibility burden
Use headings and text labels to name each side of the conflict; do not rely only on red/green diff colors.
Common misuse
Treating a conflict as a simple retryable save error.

Review before submit

UI or UX
UI + UX - Final editable answer summary before committing a transaction
UI guidance
Render a single review page immediately before commit with a clear title, grouped answer sections, readable key/value rows, per-answer or per-section Change actions, skipped optional answers when meaningful, and a primary button whose label names the committed action.
UX guidance
Use review before submit to give users one final chance to verify and correct captured answers before a transaction is sent, paid, published, applied, or otherwise committed.
Good UI
A claim review page has Applicant, Contact details, Evidence, and Declaration sections; each row shows the captured answer and a Change link with hidden context such as Change email address.
Bad UI
A final page says Check your answers but shows only a paragraph and a Continue button with no answers, section headings, or change links.
Good UX
A user changes their phone number from review, lands on the phone page with the old value pre-filled, saves, and returns directly to review with other answers preserved.
Bad UX
A user selects Change address, edits one field, then has to repeat every later page before finding the review page again.
Best fit
A user has provided multiple answers and should verify them before a consequential submit action.
Avoid when
The task is a single low-risk field with clear inline validation and an obvious submit action.
Required state
Initial review state with grouped captured answers, relevant sections, and explicit submit action.
Accessibility burden
Use headings that make the review task explicit, such as Check your answers before sending your application.
Common misuse
Using a review page that contains no captured answers.

Autosave recovery

UI or UX
UI + UX - Recovery surface for failed or uncertain background saves
UI guidance
Show a persistent recovery surface when autosave did not protect the latest work, naming the affected field or section, last server-saved time, local copy status, and available recovery actions.
UX guidance
Use autosave recovery when users need to preserve effort after background saving fails, stalls, conflicts, expires, or only stores a local copy.
Good UI
A claim form says Household income answer failed to autosave at 10:42, keeps the typed answer visible, and offers Retry save, Copy answer, Restore last saved, and Continue after saved.
Bad UI
A small toast says Could not save and disappears while the form still shows a green Saved label.
Good UX
A user loses network while writing a long answer, sees it is saved on this device only, reconnects, retries the same value, and continues after the timestamp updates.
Bad UX
A user submits after seeing Saved, but the newest section was failed and never reached the server.
Best fit
Autosave failed, stalled, expired, or became uncertain while users still have meaningful local work.
Avoid when
The product does not use autosave or local draft persistence.
Required state
Clean saved state with current server timestamp.
Accessibility burden
Announce failed, local-only, retrying, recovered, and conflict states through status text without repeating every save attempt.
Common misuse
Leaving a green Saved label visible after a failed or stale autosave.
Decision rules
  • Use conflict resolution when users must step through one or more detected conflicts, decide what survives, preview the resolved result, and commit or defer decisions.
  • Use conflict state when the main UI task is to expose that competing valid versions exist, preserve both values, and route users toward a resolution path.
  • Use review before submit when the user is checking their own captured answers before final submission and no external source, collaborator, branch, server, or import row is competing.
  • Use autosave recovery when a background save failed, stalled, expired, or became uncertain and the first job is to preserve or restore the latest local work before a resolution workflow exists.
  • Conflict resolution should show unresolved count, current conflict position, source labels, decision controls, resolved preview, skipped or copied items, and final commit state.
  • Conflict state can show Keep mine or Keep server actions for a single conflict, but a multi-conflict or audited decision sequence needs a conflict resolution workflow.
  • Review before submit can link users back to change an answer; conflict resolution must preserve both competing values until the chosen result is committed.
  • Autosave recovery may hand off to conflict resolution when local and server values both changed and the user must choose or merge them.
  • Do not use generic Retry, Accept all, or newest timestamp wins for conflict resolution; users need to inspect what will be kept and discarded.
  • Do not clear conflict badges or saved-state warnings until the resolved value is accepted by the server, document, import job, or repository.
Inspect live examples
Failure modes
  • A conflict state says Review needed but opens a page with no ordered list of conflicts or final commit review.
  • A review page asks users to check answers but hides that another source changed the same field.
  • Autosave recovery compares versions but commits one side without a resolution decision.
  • A conflict resolver enables Commit while required conflicts remain skipped or invalid.
  • A bulk Accept all action discards local, collaborator, or target-branch values without showing a final summary.
  • A resolved preview is accepted in the browser but the server rejects it and the UI still clears the conflict.