Button placements(position) - In the case of an action not applicable on all items in the list

Question

On a web page there is a list of files. Scenario is tha,

1. Some files are "system files" that can be downloaded but not deleted, and others are "manual files" that can be deleted and downloaded.
2. System files will always appear at the top.

This is what the UI currently looks like with one system file and a manual file.

What would be the better position of download button?

To the left in the case that the "delete" button is not applicable so that all the download buttons are aligned? something like below

Answer 1

It is always good to align same/similar action positions in the same line. One of the way users perceive the information shown on the screen. Going by this, option 2 looks more promising and most likely preventing error prone behavior from user.

You could also try and group them into their respective groups like the one that can be deleted and the one for which there is no delete available.

Answer 2

Option 2 looks good as it provides consistency in the position. However, this is good upto 2 icons. For more icons, move infrequent buttons to ellipses (...)

Answer 3

Personally I would put them on opposite sides of the screen. Typically I design so that 'positive' actions are on the right of the page (e.g. 'Next', 'Submit') and negative actions are on the left ('Back', 'Delete'). This follow the western reading convention, but also makes it less likely that people will click something accidentally (see Fitt's Law).