Are 'confirmation' pages for forms necessary?

[TechBoyJK]

From a UI standpoint, I'm trying to decide if it's worth integrating a 'confirmation' page when a user submits a form. Basically they submit it, then the next page says "this is the information you provided, if you are sure, click here to confirm and submit".

Without using JS, this basically requires submitting the form twice. Submit the form to the verification page, and capture those same form variables. When the user confirms, then submit those variables to the function that deals with the submission. It's somewhat of a messy proposal, as you have dual submission pages, additional server requests, etc.

With JS/ajax, it would be much easier, but regardless, from a UI perspective, is it still necessary or desired? After you fill out a form, don't people normally review the information before they submit it the first time?

For very sensitive data (like maybe health/medical where every detail can be critical) I could see this being a necessity, but for your typical blog, social media page, or ecommerce site, is it necessary, or just a nuisance?

 

[CA19100]

I'd say it's more of a nuisance, unless money is changing hands. Then I think a final confirmation page would be expected. But I would strongly suggest some kind of acknowledgement that the data has been received. I recently participated in an online employee survey at my company, and after you clicked the Submit button on the last page, you were redirected to the home page with no mention of the survey being complete. I found that to be very confusing.

 

[beginner99]

IMHO pretty much what you said. But there is no need for a submitting twice. Just show a JS alert before submitting in the typical annoying style "Are you sure you want to do this?". If cancel, don't submit, else submit.

In jquery see: http://api.jquery.com/submit/

 

[Tweak155]

IMHO pretty much what you said. But there is no need for a submitting twice. Just show a JS alert before submitting in the typical annoying style "Are you sure you want to do this?". If cancel, don't submit, else submit.

In jquery see: http://api.jquery.com/submit/

This is what I was going to suggest.

 

[Train]

I like disabling a submit button after the first click, where appropriate, to prevent double submissions.

As for confirmations, just a visual cue on the page that the request is complete is helpful, without forcing the user to click OK on an alert box. Like the spinning ajax animation, which turns into a green check or something when done.