The Next Button Problem in Compliance Training

Let's talk about the most predictable interaction in compliance training…

The next button.

It can be necessary, but there's no delight to it. No imagination. Often times it’s just understood the template had a next button. Nobody questioned it, but here we are... In the same way the tap in your basin was labelled backwards and you just moved the hot to cold, and the cold to hot.

You read a paragraph... You click next. You read another paragraph (maybe this time with a generic picture of people awkwardly pretending to be working in a conference room)... You click next. Somewhere around slide six there might be a question, and if you get it wrong, you just do it again... Then you click next.

That's not meaningful interaction. That's obligation dressed up as design.

The problem isn't the "Next" interaction itself. It's what the interaction delivers... or doesn't. The moment a learner can accurately predict what's coming next, you've lost them. Same language. Same imagery. Same rhythm. Their brain has already said "I'm out!" before the next set of generic content even loads.

The standard we should all think about upholding: every click or tap should be treated not as a given, but as something you're privileged to receive back. Each interaction is a small contract with the learner. They give you their attention (mandatory or not), you give them something they didn't expect, something that earns the next one. That's where the joy is. That's where the trust is earned.