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User Experience

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    I don't have any evidence to offer but I would suggest that feedback is key here: if your users don't see that items are being saved then they will look for a save button. If, in this instance, they don't find a save button they will worry about loosing the data they just input. If you can find a a way to signal that the data is begin saved you won't need a button. Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 8:28
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    The problem that I see with auto-save is that the user might not have finished their filling. They might feel surprised if their data is saved without their "approval" => Save button. But I like your way of thinking. We can make better forms Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 8:51
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    The text-editor "atom" has an auto-saving "configuration" screen. It works, but always make me stop a second and rethink if the changes were saved or not. Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 12:38
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    Your rightmost graphic boasts no button needed. But... If, as you posited, saving a field should occur when the user unfocuses it, then how do they save the final field? By clicking/tabbing out of it into an earlier field? That seems very undiscoverable and unfriendly to me. It almost seems like you would need another control after the last field, to save it... like some kind of Save button... :S Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 17:27
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    If the user doesn't have JavaScript, or the engine terminates, e.g. because of a timeout, the user is left without any option to save. Commented Jun 22, 2017 at 17:17