A practical checklist for button and call-to-action design
The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. Run through this the next time button and call-to-action design comes up.
The measurable part of design is whether people can find what they came for and act on it without hesitating. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.
The checklist
- Buttons should say what happens next, not "submit"
- One primary style, used sparingly, keeps it meaningful
- Touch targets under 44px cause mis-taps on phones
- Someone is named as the owner
- There is a date to review it again
What it costs to ignore
Buttons should say what happens next, not "submit". This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions. The practical test is whether someone new to the project could tell, in a minute, that it had been handled.
How to tell if yours is fine
Consistency is the quiet half of design work: it rarely gets complimented, and its absence is noticed immediately. Three things worth confirming about button and call-to-action design before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- One primary style, used sparingly, keeps it meaningful — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
Most of the value here comes from doing the first two things, not all of them.