I'm developing a web based reporting tool that allows users to give their report a title, pick their metrics, run/save reports, and then after some wait due to backend processing, view the results (some charts, tables, and infographics).
Currently, we have a ribbon around the top of the report building page with buttons that say "New", "Generate", "Save As", "Schedule", and "Export".
"Generate" implicitly saves a report and makes a request to the backend to fetch the report results. If you edit an existing report or one that was already "Generate"-ed and click "Generate" again, it saves/overwrites the existing report and reruns the processing so you get the updated results.
Save As duplicates a report under a new report title (user is prompted for new title).
So the application kind of uses a document model like in MS Word, but the difference is there is some action behind saving the report.
At various points over the course of the development of this app, these buttons have had different names based on which business owner won an argument that week, and I think the current names are not good. When I first saw "Generate", I froze and didn't know what to do for a second, and I am very familiar with the app. A tester also had a similar reaction as me.
This is what I think each button should say.
Option #1: New, Run, Duplicate (or copy maybe?), Schedule, Export
This let's users know there is an action that's going to be performed. But user does not explicitly know that "Run" will save/overwrite a report.
Option #2: New, Save, Save As, Schedule, Export
The problem with the "Save" is that a user may not know that saving kicks off a report generation which will give them results to view.
What is the best way to name these buttons?