Sheetbug’s create-a-sheet wizard had the steps I expected: Design, Slots, Settings, Publish. Using it still felt less clear than it should.
The problem was inside those steps. On the long Slots page, you could type a date or slot and click Continue without adding it. That input disappeared. The wizard also marked Slots as done with no slots, so you could get all the way to Publish before finding out the sheet wasn’t ready. The Design step had fields but nothing showing what they would look like.
I reworked the flow around smaller, focused forms and previews:
- Design now shows a live preview of the sheet’s header.
- Adding or editing a date or slot happens in a dialog, with an “add another” option for entering several.
- Slots shows a live sheet preview alongside the editing controls.
- Continuing without any slots gets a warning, and the step stays incomplete until there’s a slot.
The header preview uses the same component as the public sheet. That keeps the preview tied to what participants will actually see, rather than a separate imitation I have to maintain.
I walked through the new flow at desktop and phone widths before merging it. The verification run passed 322 unit and integration tests and 81 browser tests, including coverage for the new previews and empty-sheet warning.
The step names stayed the same. Seeing the sheet take shape, and making each add action explicit, did more for clarity than changing the navigation would have.