Button and Action Labels
Label the outcome, not the mechanism, and make the label make sense read on its own.
Definition
A button label is the shortest possible description of what will happen when it is pressed. It is read out of context more often than in context: by people scanning, by screen reader users listing controls, and by anyone deciding whether to commit.
Expert heuristic. A review criterion developed by practitioners. Useful and widely taught, but evaluated by judgement rather than measurement.
On this page
The same button, three ways
| Weak | Better | Best | Why the last one wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Submit | Send | Send request | Names the object as well as the verb, so it survives being read alone. |
| OK | Continue | Save and continue | Says what happens to the work in progress, which is the actual question. |
| Yes | Delete | Delete 12 files | Carries the scope, so the consequence is visible at the moment of pressing. |
| Learn more | Read the guide | How refunds work | Describes the destination rather than the act of going there. |
| Get started | Create a project | Create your first project | Matches the state the reader is actually in. |
Working rules
Do
- Start with a verb, and keep the verb in the reader's vocabulary rather than the system's.
- Match the label to the heading it sits under, so a dialog titled 'Delete project' has a 'Delete project' button.
- Keep the cancelling option explicitly named: Cancel, Keep editing, Go back.
- Use sentence case, which reads faster than title case at small sizes.
Do not
- Do not use Yes and No as the only labels in a dialog. They force the reader back to the question.
- Do not write 'Click here'. The label should work regardless of input device.
- Do not put the brand voice in a destructive action. Nobody wants a joke next to Delete.
- Do not repeat the same label for two different outcomes on one screen.
Length
Short is a side effect of being specific, not a target in itself.
- One to three words for repeated actions in dense interfaces.
- Up to about five words where the action is rare, consequential or easy to misread.
- Never truncate a label to fit. Redesign the control instead, because a truncated verb is a guess.
In practice
Two primaries in one dialog
A dialog offering 'Save' and 'Save and publish' as two filled buttons makes the reader compare two emphasised options under time pressure. Emphasising the safer one and demoting the other to a text button removes the comparison without removing the choice.
The label that changed the support load
Renaming 'Deactivate' to 'Pause billing' removed most of the tickets asking what deactivation did, because the old label described an internal state change and the new one describes the outcome the reader cares about.
Sources
Where a source establishes something narrower than the popular reading of it, the note says so.
Words as Material
Nielsen Norman Group
Practitioner guidance on action labelling. Expert heuristic rather than measured effect.
Continue from here
Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.
Depends on
Get these right first, or this one will not hold.
- Accessible NamesAccessibility
The label is usually the accessible name, so vague copy is an accessibility defect as well as a writing one.
Related concept
Connected closely enough to change how you apply this.
- ButtonComponent
- ConfirmationPattern
- Destructive ActionsPattern
- Confirmation and Destructive CopyUX writing
- MicrocopyUX writing
- Voice and ToneUX writing