

Why Your Form Buttons Should Never Say 'Submit' - smashing_mag
http://uxmovement.com/forms/why-your-form-buttons-should-never-say-submit

======
bphogan
I can't believe that 16 years after forms first appeard on the web we're still
having this discussion.

Using "submit" as your label? So are thousands of other sites. Your users
won't be confused.

Using something more descriptive? That's fine too. Maybe it looks a little
nicer and less generic. But it's not a usability problem.

Don't worry about this for a second. Instead focus on the real problems, like
creating usable and accessible form fields with associated labels. Write easy
to follow directions that explain which fields are required and what format
you're expecting (or write better error handling techniques to accept a
variety of inputs.) Write and _make visible_ appropriate error messages to
help your users through the process so they don't make mistakes. Record the
mistakes they make so you can use that data to engineer your forms in ways
that reduce user errors.

There are so many other things worth your attention.

~~~
sp4rki
I totally agree. Using buttons with concise messages is best when they're used
to access some functionality, but when submitting data the users have been
clicking on submit buttons for more than a decade to do so. I'd even go on and
say that in a lot of cases when you're submitting data, it's correct to use
either simple actions as 'save', 'send', and 'submit' instead of 'Do the
chicken dance when you click on this button'

Instead of worrying about submit buttons, which by the way generally exist a
lone entities at the end of a form (which makes it's use even more obvious),
worry about the actual usability of your forms and the logic behind the error
handling.

tl;dr => In more cases than not it's more correct to use 'submit' as button
copy than a more verbose counterpart when submitting forms.

~~~
pyre

      > when submitting data the users have been
      > clicking on submit buttons for more than
      > a decade to do so
    

So you only want users on your site that have at least a decade of experience
with the internet?

~~~
mea36
I don't understand why this got down voted. You can't assume that users will
have experience with the internet. I work with a lot of people have little
experience with technology and the internet and whose second language is
English and they don't understand when they see "submit."

------
extension
The trouble with putting the current task on the submit button is that the
user is _already doing that task_ and they might think that the button is a
link to start the task over, particularly if they clicked on identical text to
get to the form in the first place. I have personally made this mistake while
using some sites.

I try to include some context in the submit button but still make it clear
that it will submit the form. Short, generic verbs seem to work well, like
"Save", "Delete", or "Send".

EDIT: thinking more about this, I think what's important is to use a verb that
_applies specifically to the form data_ as opposed to the whole task: You
_send_ a reply, you don't _reply_ a reply.

~~~
burgerbrain
Exactly, I've had this issue a few times and actually consider
"submit"/"finish"/etc to be far more user friendly for this reason.

Presumably I already clicked something to the effect of "create user" to get
to the form, and now I have to click "create user" again? What?

~~~
thwarted
There's possible value is calling out the genericness of getting to the empty
form vs the specificness of the submitting the data on a single instance of
the form. "Create user" takes you to a form that has potential to be any user
(because it's empty), "Create this user" finalizes the action based on the
filled-in data on the form.

~~~
sp4rki
If you click on a link or button called 'Create a User' that that takes yo to
a form, it would be almost universally more usable to have the button at the
end say 'Save' instead of 'Create this user'. Verbosity is not always a good
thing on the web.

~~~
rue
I'm probably in the minority but when I see "save", I assume it's "saving my
progress". In a user creation form, even just "create" is clearer than "save".

~~~
sp4rki
But then we're back in "is it telling me to create the user again when I
already clicked the other button on creating a user on the other page?"
territory. I think we should use whatever feels right and A/B test the hell
out of it, but spend more time actually solving more substantial problems that
the copy on a submit button.

------
patio11
Everybody already knows what I'm going to say but by golly _it is the right
answer_ : test which one performs better for your site. 2 + 2 = 4, in the time
it takes two highly paid people to debate "Submit!" versus "Sign up" you can
have the A/B test already running and be back doing productive stuff.

~~~
idlewords
A/B tests are only useful when you can gather statistically significant
amounts of data from them. For a lot of small websites, or infrequently used
features on larger websites, that is not the case.

~~~
thezilch
Without statistically significant data, there is no hope for a statistically
significant margin gain in the arena of form submissions. That is, why not
just switch up the language? It's a trivial commit and will be an obvious
change in conversions or no change. It would have taken less time to test than
this comment to be written; just do it -- the parent comment's point.

------
larrik
I think the analogy of "submitting a form" is perfectly reasonable to average
folks. It's akin to giving a form to the receptionist at the doctor's office
through the window:

1\. You get form, and go fill it out

2\. You bring back the form and hand it to the receptionist

3\. You get a range of responses ranging from nothing to a helpful answer.

Sounds exactly like an HTML form to me.

Is this the sort of parallel you want your users thinking of? Probably not,
but it's also not some arcane terminology only programmers use either.

(edited for formatting)

~~~
zephjc
It's still vague and doesn't tell the user what is DONE when you submit. "Save
Changes" for settings, "Sign Up Now" for users joining a website, "Log In" to
log into a website, "Reply" for replying to a comment ;-) Etc.

~~~
citricsquid
> _Sign Up Now_

ew, no. For me at least "sign up now" implies starting the sign up process. I
would think "complete registration" or "create account" or "finish and create
account" would be much better than "sign up now" _especially_ if you've
previously used "sign up" wording.

~~~
zephjc
Agreed, those are better, but the idea stands - tell users what they're doing
when they click that button with the button text

------
mrkurt
I would argue that the "do something" button should focus more on where you
are in the process than the process itself. The examples in the page all sound
like the "start" step, instead they should reflect that they're finishing or
moving the user on to the next step. "Submit" is generic, but at least sounds
final.

The reality, though, is that we're all guessing. Unless you go to the effort
to A/B test something like that, it's just voodoo.

------
kolya3
I received user feedback from a woman who said our submit button was "vile"
and "sexist" because the label on it said "Submit". It took me a second to
process. I can't imagine the emotions bubbling up inside her every day that
she browses the web.

But regardless, we'll be changing the "Submit" button to "Sign In".

~~~
blasdel
The classic is people fretting over master/slave nomenclature on hardware:
<http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/master.asp>

~~~
cmelbye
Also "daemon." I can't remember which, but one of the "Linux distros for
Christians" tried to remove references to daemons in the user interface and
documentation.

------
jayzee
Read this somewhere:

The internet is like a dominatrix. Everywhere I turn it asks me to submit.

------
tokenadult
This is an empirical question, and ought to be resolved by actual user data
from a usability study.

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zephjc
This harkens back to Windows vs Mac conventions for alerts (see
[http://developer.apple.com/ue/switch/windows.html#designClea...](http://developer.apple.com/ue/switch/windows.html#designClearDialogs)
)

~~~
drblast
I can't remember which dialog it is in Windows, but the most hideous example
uses the standard Yes/No/Cancel buttons out of context but explains beforehand
what each one does, like this:

    
    
      -To continue closing the program and save the document, click "Yes"
      -To continue working without saving, click "Cancel"
      -To save and then continue working click "No"
    

Which takes you five minutes to read and could have easily been replaced by
set of a "Save and Close," "Save and Continue" and "Cancel" buttons.

~~~
forensic
For poor visual basic coders, it's easier to use standard dialogs than make
custom ones. In the old days the Yes/No/Cancel text would be hardcoded into a
specific dialog object.

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5teev
It's sometimes worthwhile to use boring, "wrong" default form elements, like
when the browser will automatically translate their text labels into the
user's preferred (i.e., non-English) language.

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mayank
...unless of course you're running a BDSM site.

------
Joakal
[http://uxmovement.com/forms/best-way-to-align-buttons-on-
for...](http://uxmovement.com/forms/best-way-to-align-buttons-on-forms)

In examples provided, 'submit' is used. "Never say 'Submit'" indeed.

~~~
true_religion
It's a generic form in the example, so he used a generic submit button.

Without context, how are you supposed to say what the 'submit' button should
be changed to?

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stephenou
I noticed <http://news.ycombinator.com/submit> said submit on the button too.

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nfriedly
I'd rather the submit button say "Submit" than have any "Reset" button
anywhere. I hate it when I accidentally click those.

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k0n2ad
Darn, I was planning on having a Submit! button for when I become supreme
dictator. Of course I'd have my own website.

------
richcollins
Submit buttons are bad UI to start with. All content should be directly
editable. You don't see a submit button on word processors.

~~~
Toucan
People who use the web are used to have some sort of confirmation that their
data has been safely squirrelled away somewhere. When I use sites that behave
like this, I often find myself going back to the settings page to make sure my
new settings have actually been changed, even though I understand the
technology behind it.

~~~
joshtynjala
I expect to see this change to match desktop expectations eventually, but I
agree. Connectivity, and web apps themselves, can be unreliable, so it feels
safer to see a new page load to confirm that our settings have been saved.

Additionally, many Windows apps still use OK, Cancel, Apply buttons in
settings dialogs. The instant saving of settings is more of a Mac thing. Users
are going to expect similar things from UI on the web, and the majority are
probably new to the idea of no save/cancel choice.

