How you get here
It is the framework default. A create or update action that redirects to the index is the generated scaffold in almost every web framework, and it survives because it is correct in the narrow case — the very first time someone creates a thing, going to the list is reasonable.
It stops being reasonable the moment the person is working through something: correcting a filtered list, editing a record they will edit again, or making one change among several.
How to recognise it
- People ask "did that save?" — the definitive symptom.
- Anyone editing several records rebuilds their filters between each one.
- The scroll position resets after every save.
- Someone's workflow includes opening the record in a second tab so they do not lose the list.
- A flash message appears at the top of a page whose save button was at the bottom, so nobody ever reads it.
Why it fails
It destroys context the person built and the system did not. Filters, sort order, scroll position and the mental thread of "I am halfway through these twelve" are all real work, and a redirect discards them for free.
It also breaks the feedback loop. Confirmation of a save is most useful next to the thing that changed. Moving the person elsewhere and showing a banner replaces "I can see it worked" with "the software claims it worked", which is a strictly weaker signal and the reason people re-check.
The way out
In order of preference:
- Do not leave. Edit the value where it lives, so there is no navigation to undo and the new value is visible in place.
- Stay on the record. If a form is warranted, save and remain, showing the updated state.
- Return to where they came from, with the filters, sort and scroll restored — carried in the URL, not in memory.
- If you must move them, say where they are going and why, and make the thing they just changed visible on arrival.
And put the confirmation where the eye already is, not at the top of a page the person is not looking at.
The one legitimate case
Creation of a brand-new object, by someone who has just arrived, with nothing to return to. Even then, landing on the new record is usually better than the list — creation is the beginning of the work, not the end of it.