Content style guide
Button labels
Buttons signal important calls to action (CTA) and help people quickly see what’s the most important action they need to take on a page. Treat buttons like important or primary content, and prioritize their placement on pages as you would essential information.
Use links for secondary or less important actions on a page. Likewise, for simple navigation to lead people between pages, use links instead of buttons.
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Use sentence case for button labels.
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Make button labels as short as possible.
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Use “trigger words” that people recognize and clearly signal what will happen when they click the button.
Like this
Create an account
Not this
Get started
- Make it an action.
Like this
File a complaint
Not this
Complaint filing
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Always take users to the right level of access for the CTA.
Like this: “Explore VA health care” button should take you to a general health care benefits landing page like va.gov/health-care.
Like this: “Apply for VA health care” button should take you to an application page like va.gov/health-care/apply.
Like this: “Compare GI Bill benefits” button should take you right to the comparison tool, va.gov/gi-bill-comparison-tool.
Looking for button design and interaction standards? Go to button components