We are abusing Primary Buttons. We, the IT industry. It doesn’t matter if you are a programmer, PO, PM or designer. Think three times before using the main button. By styling the linking on the screen, we can help or hinder the user. First things first.
Button for Button
When designing / implementing the screen, you have several forms of linking at your disposal. The most common are two buttons (primary and secondary) and a label. Depending on the style you work with, they can be named differently. Each button should visually have different states (default, hover, disable, etc), but you probably already know that. Let’s focus on their default state.
Click me!
Depending on the screen, each button / link more or less draws the user’s attention. It is by pushing individual links that lead the user by the hand through the confusing paths of our interfaces. If we start using the primary button everywhere, the user will not only be confused, but may also lose the track he was following.
Primary, which is what
The primary button is the main button. We use it to visually emphasize some action that we care about. To draw attention to an action on a form or to highlight the strongest call to action on a page. When not to use? In all other cases. The default button type should be Secondary. There is a reason why, in some design systems, Secondary is referred to as default.
Too many links, too many possibilities
I already wrote about the nonsense that the user does not like to click. This myth has long been debunked. The user doesn’t like to wonder where to click. The more buttons, the longer he’ll think. I am speaking here in the context of all forms of linking. Hide unnecessary links, use others / advanced options. Combine. Clean screens. The less functionality in one view, the better
The leader among buttons
It pushes itself to the fore at the expense of other interface elements. You need to separate the primusas from each other. The Primary Button should only appear once on the screen. Most importantly: not every screen needs a home button. Secondary is our default button from today. It would also be cool if we avoided the bar as such in general. We do not always have influence on this. Let’s focus on what we can change.