Exit warning interrupts an attempted departure when leaving would lose unrecoverable work or context. Autosave form prevents loss by saving progress, draft state exposes a durable unpublished version, and confirmation dialog confirms an explicit risky action rather than navigation away.
Exit warning interrupts an attempted departure when leaving would lose unrecoverable work or context. Autosave form prevents loss by saving progress, draft state exposes a durable unpublished version, and confirmation dialog confirms an explicit risky action rather than navigation away.
Practice the judgment: Imagine this situation: The app traps users by disabling Leave even after they choose to discard changes. Write the person's goal, choose one of these patterns, and show the state that helps the person continue. Use the decision rules and source trail below to explain your choice.
Review the underlying principle →| Dimension | Exit warning | Autosave form | Draft state | Confirmation dialog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UI or UX | UI + UX - Attempted-departure safeguard for unrecoverable in-progress work | UI + UX - Background-saving form progress | UI + UX - Unpublished object version lifecycle | UI + UX - Consequential alert decision |
| UI guidance | Show a warning only when the user attempts to leave with real unsaved, pending, failed, or unrecoverable work; place in-app route warnings at the point of departure with Save and leave, Discard and leave, and Stay editing choices. | Render a clear autosave message before users start, then keep a persistent status surface for Pending, Saving, Saved with timestamp, Failed, Retry, and unsafe-to-leave states. | Label the current version explicitly as Draft, Unpublished changes, Published, Active, Locked, or Unavailable, and place that label near the object title, list row, editor header, and publish actions. | Render an alert-style modal decision with a specific title, consequence description, safe cancellation, and a destructive action label that names the object or scope. |
| UX guidance | Help the person reach a clear task outcome. | Use autosave when losing progress would hurt and background persistence is safer than making users hunt for a distant Save button. | Use draft state when users need to pause work on an object, return later, and decide whether to publish, activate, discard, or keep editing an unpublished version. | Help the person reach a clear task outcome. |
| Good UI | A grant form user clicks Back with two unsaved answers; a dialog names the changed section and offers Save and leave, Discard and leave, or Stay editing. | A long application step says the application is saved on every change, shows Saving after an edited title blurs, then shows Draft saved just now with a timestamp. | A knowledge article header says Draft saved today, shows the currently published title, and offers Resume draft, Compare with published, Discard draft, and Publish. | Delete Research archive? explains that 14 notes and shared links will be permanently removed, offers Keep archive, and labels the danger action Delete archive. |
| Bad UI | Every navigation shows Are you sure you want to leave? even after the form is saved. | A green Saved toast appears after one field saves, while another changed field is still pending or failed. | A draft label is missing from the editor, so users publish or discard the wrong version. | The red destructive action is enabled immediately and sits where users expect the routine primary button. |
| Good UX | A user chooses Discard and leave from an in-app warning and is taken to the intended destination with a clear understanding of what was discarded. | A user writes a long answer, pauses, sees Saving, then sees Draft saved just now and can leave knowing the draft is recoverable. | A user opens a published article that has an unpublished version, chooses Resume draft, reviews a change summary, publishes, and sees the page become visible to viewers. | Cancel, Escape, and Keep archive leave the archive unchanged and return focus to Delete archive. |
| Bad UX | A user clicks a sidebar link after typing a long answer and loses it because the product only watched final Submit. | A password or permission field autosaves immediately and takes effect before the user reviewed the consequence. | A user discards a shared draft and unknowingly removes another editor's unpublished changes. | Every archive, filter, and dismiss action opens the same confirmation until users click through automatically. |
| Best fit | A route change, tab close, reload, browser Back, external link, or sign-out action can interrupt a task. | Users spend meaningful time entering form content or application progress. | Users need to pause and resume unfinished work across sessions, devices, or routes. | The action is destructive, irreversible, costly, security-sensitive, privacy-affecting, or externally visible. |
| Avoid when | The page is clean, read-only, or all changes are safely saved and recoverable. | The form is short enough that a visible manual Save or Submit is clearer. | The change is a small one-field edit that should be saved or canceled immediately. | The action is routine and easily reversible. |
| Required state | Dirty unsaved state with local unsaved-work status. | Initial state that explains progress will be saved automatically. | Published or active state with an available draft. | Pre-action state with an explicit consequential trigger. |
| Accessibility burden | Use a real dialog or alertdialog for in-app warnings, with a heading that names the loss risk. | Expose autosave status changes in a polite status region so assistive technology users hear Saving, Saved, and Failed states. | Use headings and status regions so screen reader users know whether they are editing a draft or viewing the active version. | Use alertdialog semantics or platform equivalent when the decision is urgent and requires a response. |
| Common misuse | Warning on every navigation regardless of whether work is dirty. | Showing Saved when only an older change was saved. | Using Saved to mean both saved draft and published content. | Asking users to confirm every routine action until they stop reading. |