---
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.