External links/actions in within a full page wizard. (Discussion)

[dfcontreras10]

Hey Paste team, I hope you are doing great!

Quick question: Is it consistent with our design patterns to include an optional link within a full-page wizard that opens a new flow in a separate tab? I understand that the purpose of the full-page wizard is to create a focus trap, but in complex scenarios where additional information cannot be effectively displayed in a modal, would it be acceptable to include external links?

Example: In this flow, our customers will check if their external Phone Numbers are eligible to be ported into Twilio.

1. On this screen/wizards step, they’ll review the results of the eligibility report.

2. On this screen, they are reviewing the details of their non-eligible phone numbers. Here, it’s helpful to include the reasons for ineligibility along with supporting documentation for each, as well as actions they can take to "fix" the situation.

As context, the main job to be done for our customers at this point is moving their phone numbers from one location to another—from position A to position B. Whether they are porting a number from an external carrier to Twilio (a porting process) or transferring a number between Twilio accounts (a move process), the end goal remains the same.

While there are various use cases for moving numbers, we are unable to provide a single, universal request flow to manage all scenarios due to technical constraints. Instead, we’ve divided the requests based on the type of movement being performed. To help customers achieve their ultimate goal of moving their numbers, it’s essential to provide them with access to the appropriate request flows or products.

In this case, the best solution we can offer is an external link that opens the corresponding flow for the specific process they need to complete. However, our team has been discussing whether this approach aligns with our design patterns or not.

P.S: While this idea addresses the technical constraints, we recognize that the main risk is potential user drop-off during this specific journey.

[TwilioPasteBot]

Disclaimer: This is a very experimental bot using OpenAI's GPT-4. The answers may not be correct, a human will review the answer and update it if necessary.

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Sorry, I don't know how to help with that.

I did do a search though, and I managed to find these other Discussions that might be similar or related to your question. Give them a read to see if they answer your question. If they do, head back here and update this discussion and mark it as answered, pointing others to the related discussion:

• Wizard accessibility considerations - Answer (updated: 08/31/2023, similarity score: 87%)
• Review - Flex Call Transfers to External Numbers - Answer (updated: 06/06/2023, similarity score: 86%)
• Sub-steps within steps for long and complex wizards (Progress Step) (updated: 10/03/2024, similarity score: 86%)

[krisantrobus]

Hi @dfcontreras10 we discussed this and have some thoughts and open questions. Firstly we are ok with the external links for taking actions on phone numbers. We are unsure about using a side modal in a full screen wizard as it is a full width view with another surface.

We also feel that as the focus of the flow is to complete the wizard and any action on failed numbers is secodndary information teh side modal interrupts the main task. One option to explore would be to us ethe summary deatil component and add the table into that. We have a basic example here. We feel this would be more beneficial because it would keep those secondary actions integrated in the flow more.

One question we had for you is whether the eligibility report on the main flow also includes the non eligible numbers or is this only a list of all of the successfully ported numbers?

[dfcontreras10]

Hey @krisantrobus,

Thank you and the rest of the team for taking the time to review this. It’s greatly appreciated!

Got it on being okay with using external links for taking actions on phone numbers. That’s a valuable insight for us.

Secondly, we did consider a similar approach using a disclosure component, as seen here. However, the summary detail component you suggested seems like a much better fit. Thanks for the advice—we’ll be testing that as well!

Regarding your question, the mandatory downloadable eligibility report will include both eligible and non-eligible numbers.

Thanks again for your feedback, it’s been super helpful!