Order of buttons when on the right of the page

Question

I've been going through various posts on this board to clarify my doubts but I haven't found anything yet.

As I understand, there are 3 methods of positioning buttons,

1. by importance of the action.
2. by how destructive the action could be.
3. by frequency of use.

I'm currently working on a layout for a job portal in which I wish to have the Edit, Clone and End job actions on the top right of the form. The dilemma I'm facing is in which order these buttons should be placed in.

a. Left to Right

b. Right to Left

I also saw this post, however there is no reasoning why Approve is on the right side in all 4 options.

Any articles or books where this is documented would be great.

Thanks!

Answer 1

by importance of the action.
by how destructive the action could be.
by frequency of use.

All of these suggest that the most-important, most-used and least destructive option be listed closest to the content.

I'd suggest using a left to right on this menu as users are more often going to be editing something I'd say than removing it or cloning it to a duplicate entry.

however there is no reasoning why Approve is on the right side in all 4 options.

Because it's a large decision that has thought behind it. You can't go back from it, it's highly destructive which weighs heavily on how it will be used. Not to mention it's colour is very different to the others and seems to take importance from that.

This means you should know where it is at all times and "don't click it" accidentally.