Workbook Navigation and UX Standard¶
Purpose¶
A customer should never feel lost inside a product. This standard covers how a customer finds their way around a workbook, independent of the visual styling covered in workbook-visual-design-standard.md.
Start Here tab¶
Every product with more than a couple of tabs should include a Start Here tab that customers land on by default (the workbook should open to this tab). It should state, briefly:
- What the tool does and who it's for.
- The basic order of operations (e.g., "1. Enter your info on the Inputs tab. 2. Check the Dashboard. 3. Print the Report tab if needed.").
- A way to get to every other relevant tab from this one — either a manual table of contents with hyperlinks or, where practical, a navigation area with links.
Table of contents / navigation links¶
For products with enough tabs that horizontal tab-scrolling becomes a burden, include a navigation aid: a short table of contents on the Start Here tab (or a dedicated Navigation area) with hyperlinks to each major tab. Each tab, in turn, should offer an easy way back (a "Back to Start" link or equivalent), so customers are never more than one click from reorienting themselves.
Consistent tab ordering¶
Tabs should follow a consistent left-to-right order across products in this venture, loosely following the recommended pattern in workbook-architecture-standard.md: orientation first, then configuration, then inputs, then outputs (dashboard/reports), then reference/calculation/archive material last. Consistency across products reduces the relearning cost for a customer who buys more than one Digital Products tool.
Clear labeling¶
- Tab names should be short, specific, and free of internal jargon (e.g., "Dashboard" rather than "DASH_v3_final").
- Section headers within a tab should describe what the section is for, not just restate the tab name.
- Avoid unexplained abbreviations in customer-facing labels.
Minimal clicks to core tasks¶
The core task of a product (entering data and seeing a result) should take as few navigation steps as possible. As a rough guideline: from opening the workbook, a customer should be able to reach the primary input area within one click/tab-switch, and the primary output (dashboard or report) within two. Products with justified higher complexity may exceed this, but the specification should note why.