Soft close: Leaving without losing the thread.
A study of the moment between finishing an edit and leaving a document.
The question
A close button is usually treated as a simple exit. In a collaborative document, leaving may mean the work is ready, unfinished, or waiting for someone else. Soft close examines how to ask for the right amount of context without turning every departure into a form.
The interaction
The prototype offers a short optional exit note and a clear statement of what has been saved. The default action remains Leave document. It does not require a status selection. A person can add “The introduction is ready; the examples need another pass” when that distinction matters.
A detail that matters
The confirmation separates local action from social implication. It says the draft was saved, not that the work was approved. The note sits beside the latest revision for the next visit. A small undo link returns to the document while preserving the note, so an accidental exit is recoverable.
Try the moment
A local demonstration of the confirmation language.
The tradeoff
An exit prompt can become annoying if it appears too often. I would show this pattern only after meaningful edits or when a person chooses to leave a note. The study is not an argument for intercepting every navigation event with a modal.
What remains open
The key design distinction is between saved and finished. A system can know the former and should be careful about inferring the latter. The interaction language should preserve that difference.