10 
REGISTER

Username
-----------------------
|_____________________|

Password
-----------------------
|_____________________|

 .------.
| Submit |
 '------'

When designing forms, do you customize the text in the submit button? In the registration example above, would you leave the submit button with the default "submit" text or would you choose an alternative?

  • Register
  • Join
  • OK
  • Go

On other forms such as login, purchasing, updating account, how do you choose the right submission action word? Or do you think it doesn't matter?

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8 Answers 8

Reset to default
11

I try always to relate the button with the action that it's being performed, specially if it is a long form. Some calls to action are very generic (OK and Go) and it can cause confusion for users, eg: "Am I really saving this document?"

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1
  • A perfect example of this is Apple's don't save button. Windows 7 has emulated this feature - most of us ignore what the text says anyways, so telling us the important information on the button is something that makes us happy. Like the button to the right of the box I'm typing in now that says "Add Comment"
    – Wayne Werner
    Oct 21, 2011 at 15:44
5

For a bondage forum, Submit is probably the perfect label. In general, you may want to tailor the label to be consistent with other terminology in the user interface. When in doubt, take your best guess and then run some usability tests.

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1
  • 9
    For our Spanish Inquisition Forum we labeled the Okay button "Confess". No one expected it.
    – Ben Brocka
    Oct 21, 2011 at 1:25
3

Why does it need to be a single word? 'Submit this form' or 'Save my document' are unambiguous and perfectly describe the action being performed.

Tell the user exactly what the function of that button is as succinctly and accurately as possible. While you might be able to achieve this with a single term (i.e. 'Search') there is nothing stopping you from using more than one word.

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1

Try to match the user's goal. What is the user's motivation for filling in this form? Everyone hates forms, so what is the user hoping to get in return for this arduous task? Access to content? The ability to post messages? Saving preferences?

In your example OK and Go are too generic. Think further about (or user test) which verbs your users would use to describe why they are filling out this form and use one of those or something like it. They would probably say things like Join or Register.

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1

You should always use task specific buttons, that explains what action the button will trigger. Don't use vague descriptions like 'submit' or 'OK'.

Task specific Buttons

Theres also a really good article on how to design forms that you could read on uxplanet.org, just scroll to section Action Buttons > Naming Conventions.

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1
  • I know its a very late answer but I want to reference the source for other users.
    – Mischa
    Jan 21, 2018 at 12:30
0

I think it depends on whether this form is strictly for registration or whether it's a login form. Normally, if it was registration, you'd have a password verification field where users entered their choice again. I think Luiz makes a good point about labels being descriptive of the action, but these kind of forms can be a little finicky.

For example, if it was a newsletter, you might use 'sign up' but with a member organization, 'join' so often, while it is kind of generic, 'submit' works pretty well because the user is submitting the form.

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0

Which is the main action? Register? Log in? Check out?, then use it. Always have to be an "action-word".

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1
  • The specific term is a "Call to Action"
    – Ben Brocka
    Nov 11, 2011 at 20:23
-1

I had this same question and found an interesting answer on HubSpot that said landing pages who didn't use "submit" had higher conversion rates than those who did.

The person who wrote the article also conducted a test to see which "action word" would get the most clicks and found the following:

enter image description here

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1
  • "Click here" is a terrible suggestion. It has accessibility problems (goo.gl/kG6Gww) and makes zero attempt to connect with user intent.
    – Chris Calo
    Jan 20, 2018 at 16:35

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