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What do you think? Should sign up and log in links be split into two buttons or is it OK to have them in one?

N.B.: sign up form and log in form are on the same page.

Thx, Alex

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Do you have any reason to why you want to combine the actions, or is it simply a question on whether it would be accepted or not? If there's no apparent reason for combining them, screen real estate etc, then I would suggest sticking to the norm and provide both actions in separate buttons, this is what most users will expect. – AndroidHustle Oct 10 '12 at 7:02
In fact, we have been using a single button for one of our website for a long time now. It strikes me this morning... we could separate the two actions. – alesas Oct 10 '12 at 8:01

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UxMovement made a pretty interesting note about the subject - don't forget to also read the comments.

To summarize, it doesn't truly matter if you've got one or two buttons, the important fact is that the user can easily distinct both, especially through their labels: sign up and sign in are too similar, and even if they are two buttons far away from each other, users will mix them up.

That said, I'd stick to the standard and provide two buttons, as there are two actions. A new user won't click on a log in button, and a known user won't click on a sign up button either.

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Interesting reading :) Thx. What do you think of this "all-in one" button? box.com – alesas Oct 10 '12 at 8:01
Seems nice to me, clearly understandable. It was also suggest in another article of UxMovement: uxmovement.com/navigation/… (check section Unified Login/Sign Up Button) – Xavier Portebois Oct 10 '12 at 8:26
Good knowledge here. Thx. So here, we should focus on: text and, if possible, separating in a way the button in two or make two buttons. – alesas Oct 10 '12 at 9:35

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