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.

• Use sentence case for button labels.

• Make button labels as short as possible.

• Use “trigger words” that people recognize and clearly signal what will happen when they click the button.

• Make it an action.

• 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