How to treat navigation in mobile applications?

Question

We all go Back, but never go Forward?

I'm working on a new project with the just released Xamarin.Forms and I have hit a wall in my development process.

The goal of the application is to give a user advise on a subject called X.

In order to give the user information about subject X, the application needs a lot of userdata. The input of the data is handled across multiple pages due to the enormous amount of information needed.

For example:

• Screen 1: The user fills in personal information.
• Screen 2: The user fills in information about his car.
• Screen 3: The user fills in information about his favorite color.
• Screen 4: The user fills in information about his dog.
• Screen 5: Advise! Get yourself another dog, because as long as your name is * and you drive a * in the color *, he'll never ride with you.

Clearly, in this situation, we have a straight and forward navigation path. We want information about a subject and then move on to the next screen.

Problem is, I can't figure out where to position this next button in an App. I've struggled with this navigation problem for so long I wonder if I've got the whole "mobile navigation" part wrong. How are App with such goals usually transformed into an App?

For a long time I had a hacky solution, but since I started using Xamarin.Forms and couldn't find a default way of getting from one screen to another I started to wonder about the problem at a more abstract level.

Answer 1

Your question has no answer, it's most than technology, it's about UX

For me, the best way to control your navigations with business rules is using Prism framework. With this you can navigate by ViewModel.

Answer 2

in Xamarin.Forms, you'd solve your navigation problem using a NavigationPage. When the current page is complete, or on a button click, you'll just do navigationPage.PushAsync (nextPage);. The Back path is provided by the platform.