Check answers page

Date adopted: 
January 28, 2019
Last update: 
October 26, 2020

Why use this pattern?

Let users check their answers before submitting information to a service.

Where to use this pattern

Show a check answers page immediately before the confirmation page.

If a service takes payment, show a check answers page immediately before the payment page. The payment page is followed by the confirmation page.

When to use this pattern

Check answers pages help to:

  • increase users’ confidence as they can clearly see that they have completed all the sections and that their data has been captured; and
  • reduce error rates as users are given a second chance to notice and correct errors before submitting a form.

Make the page easy to understand

On your check answers page, you should:

  • make it clear there’s 1 primary task to perform on the page. For example, ‘Finish and submit';
  • make it clear that the transaction will not be complete until a user confirms their information is correct;
  • break the content up into sections when you can;
  • only show sections that are relevant to users – for example, if they’ve said they’re from Yukon, do not show sections for questions they have not answered about locations outside of Yukon;
  • rephrase questions if you need to. For example, you do not need to label every individual line of an address, and you can rewrite long questions as shorter statements.

Let users go back and edit their answers

You should provide a ‘Edit’ button next to or underneath each section on your check answers page so that users can add or edit the information. Use a secondary button for these buttons.

The answers pages should look the same way they did when the user last used them, with all their answers pre-populated.

When they’ve finished, the ‘Continue’ button should return them to the check answers page. They should not need to go through the rest of the transaction again.

If a user changes their response in a way that means you need to ask them more questions, do this before returning them to the check answers page.

How it works

Check answers page example