Following the recent introduction of the toggle by @Grzesiek2010 to turn swiping back on/off on a forms wide basis I'd like to see this refined so swipe back disabling can also occur at a question level.
We have a survey which includes some general opening questions which are input by the enumerator. At a particular question the device is then handed over to the respondent so they can input their own answers to questions of a more personal nature.
While the enumerator is trained to swipe left to advance the survey the respondent sometimes becomes confused at the direction of "travel". By disallowing swiping back at a particular question this problem should be alleviated.
I'd missed the navigation options. For my ideal needs though I'd really want another choice added to the button option. This would be Swipe (forwards and backwards) plus forward only button on display. This way the enumerator can use the quicker swipe method (both directions) while the respondent is informed to progress the form by pushing the single forward button on display. As it currently stands the respondent still has the ability to confuse the issue and mispress the back button.
From a UI standpoint the above is admittedly counter-intuitive (navigation both ways but controls not reflecting this) being designed for a very specific circumstance which I suspect only a handful of others would also find useful. I'm aware of the dangers of bloating software when one of its strengths is its simplicity of use underpinned by a clearly intuitive way of constructing a data form.
I'm a testament to that having discovered the software less than two weeks ago to replicate and bring in-house a very basic, paper based 8 question survey. I've quickly been able to expand that to 15 asked questions (a total 95 questions built behind the scene), introduce a multi-lingual aspect (11 languages), a multi-currency aspect (15 currencies covering 27 countries) and yet the entirely intuitive nature of the drag and drop Builder (no XLS editing needed) means this hidden complexity delivers a survey length only a little longer with no subsequent data transfer as with paper forms. Fantastic, so take a very well deserved bow ODK and all its developers.
I'll have a look at the spec. proposal forms and see if I can work my way through what's required as the question level control would obviously be the most intuitive way of meeting my need.