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- ---
- title: Label Buttons Expressively
- order: 67
- layout: page
- ---
-
- [[label-buttons-expressively]]
- = Label buttons expressively
-
- People don’t read dialog box messages. They just click _“OK”_ or _“Yes”_
- or whichever button that seems like the right choice to make the dialog
- go away, without reading, or at least without really thinking about what
- it's trying to tell them.
-
- What this means for UI design is that it’s important to label buttons in
- a way that clearly indicates the result of pressing them, in order to
- prevent users from making the wrong choice with potentially disastrous
- results.
-
- Most desktop applications display a dialog like this when you attempt to
- close them without first saving the document you were working on:
-
- image:img/save%20changes%201.png[Save changes dialog]
-
- Sometimes, however, the same question is expressed in a subtly different
- way:
-
- image:img/save%20changes%202.png[Save changes "Are you sure..."]
-
- Needless to say, the risk of choosing the wrong answer is quite
- substantial, unless you actually take the time to read through the
- message (which most users do not). Of course it helps to stick to the
- most common way of asking these kinds of questions, and being consistent
- at least within your own applications. But there is room for improvement
- here.
-
- If the options were labelled *_“Save”_ and _“Discard”_* or *_“Save
- first”_ and _“Quit without saving”_*, instead of a simple _“Yes”_ and
- _“No”_, all ambiguity suddenly disappears. Even if the user doesn’t read
- a word of the message itself, the effects of these options is quite
- clear:
-
- image:img/save%20changes%203.png[Save changes button]
-
- This principle doesn’t just apply to buttons in dialog boxes, though.
- Even in other areas of a user interface, expressive labelling of actions
- reduces ambiguity and makes users more confident in their work.
- Consider, for instance, *_“Post”_* or even *_“Post comment”_* instead of
- the typical _“Submit”_ for posting a comment on a blog. If your
- _“Cancel”_ button doesn’t actually cancel anything, but rather resets a
- form or reverts some changes, consider labelling it *_“Revert”_* or
- *_“Reset form”_* instead.
-
- Also try to keep the label as short as possible, and consider starting
- with a verb. That way the user probably picks the right choice even if
- he only reads the first word of the label.
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