Description
Currently, when users are creating or editing a form, any accidental page refresh, browser crash, or navigation away from the page results in complete data loss. This creates a poor user experience, especially when working on long or complex forms.
Adding an auto-save draft feature will significantly improve reliability and usability of the form editor by preventing accidental data loss.
Problem Statement
Users often lose progress when creating or editing forms due to unexpected refreshes, tab closures, network issues, or accidental navigation. This forces users to recreate forms from scratch, leading to frustration and reduced productivity.
Proposed Solution
Implement an auto-save mechanism that periodically saves form data while users are editing.
Suggested implementation:
- Automatically save form state every 5–10 seconds or on field change events
- Store draft data temporarily using LocalStorage or IndexedDB
- Optionally sync drafts to backend for authenticated users
- Restore the last saved draft automatically when the editor is reopened
- Show UI feedback such as "Saving..." and "Draft Saved" indicators
This solution ensures minimal performance impact while providing continuous data protection.
Alternatives Considered
An alternative approach would be requiring users to manually click a "Save Draft" button. However, this still risks data loss if users forget to save.
Auto-save provides a better user experience and aligns with modern SaaS editor standards such as Google Forms and Notion.
Use Cases
- When users are creating long multi-field forms and accidentally refresh the page.
- When users switch browser tabs or applications during form creation.
- When network instability causes unexpected reloads.
- When users want to pause form creation and resume later without losing progress.
Priority
High - Critical for my use case
Additional Context
Similar auto-save behavior is implemented in tools like Google Forms, Typeform, and Notion editors. Implementing this feature will help GenForm match industry UX standards and improve user trust in the platform.
Code of Conduct
Description
Currently, when users are creating or editing a form, any accidental page refresh, browser crash, or navigation away from the page results in complete data loss. This creates a poor user experience, especially when working on long or complex forms.
Adding an auto-save draft feature will significantly improve reliability and usability of the form editor by preventing accidental data loss.
Problem Statement
Users often lose progress when creating or editing forms due to unexpected refreshes, tab closures, network issues, or accidental navigation. This forces users to recreate forms from scratch, leading to frustration and reduced productivity.
Proposed Solution
Implement an auto-save mechanism that periodically saves form data while users are editing.
Suggested implementation:
This solution ensures minimal performance impact while providing continuous data protection.
Alternatives Considered
An alternative approach would be requiring users to manually click a "Save Draft" button. However, this still risks data loss if users forget to save.
Auto-save provides a better user experience and aligns with modern SaaS editor standards such as Google Forms and Notion.
Use Cases
Priority
High - Critical for my use case
Additional Context
Similar auto-save behavior is implemented in tools like Google Forms, Typeform, and Notion editors. Implementing this feature will help GenForm match industry UX standards and improve user trust in the platform.
Code of Conduct