Editing Wizard (software) (section)

== Criticism ==
Wizards have been criticized for being ponderous, stripping questions of context, and obscuring the underlying operations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=WizardsAreDangerous |url=https://wiki.c2.com/?WizardsAreDangerous |access-date=August 26, 2020 |website=[[WikiWikiWeb]]}}</ref> The criticism is common enough that one guide to wizard design starts by addressing the popular perception that a wizard is "just a patch for a bad interface".<ref name=":1" />

[[Alan Cooper (software designer)|Alan Cooper]] sees wizards as segregating new and expert users, abdicating the responsibility of designing a single coherent interface; they are "grafted on to meet the marketing department's perception of new users. Experts rarely use them, and beginners soon desire to discard these embarrassing reminders of their ignorance. But the perpetual intermediate majority is perpetually stuck with them." He compares them to training wheels that must be easily removed. A wizard "attempts to guarantee success" by treating the user as a machine who merely sets the rhythm of the steps; when every option has a default, "the user learns that he merely clicks the Next button on each screen without critically analyzing why." Wizards often don't clarify the underlying concepts, he writes; "They are giving programmers license to put raw implementation model interfaces on complex features with the bland assurance that: 'We'll make it easy with a wizard.{{' "}}<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=Alan |title=About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design |publisher=Wiley |year=2007 |isbn=9781118766576 |edition=3rd |pages=89, 93, 324, 764 |language=en}}</ref>