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[Pawel Debik]

Sometimes I wonder if there is a difference from the users perspective between buttons and text links that are not a part of the menu but appear throughout the site.

When you are about to click on either a button or a text link, what do you usually expect that will happen:

Click on button: you are taken to another page on the same site, or you are taken outside of the site to another window.

Click on text link: you are taken to another page on the same site, or you are taken outside of the site to another window.

[iGammaRay]

Usually people expect that buttons take them to a place within the same site, unless the button explicitly says something different. Buttons are usually placed to emphasize links, and to lead to "important" parts of the site, such as an objective page (a download page, or buy now page or something similar), and also to DO something. Text links are usually placed inline and link to different parts of the site (or external sites) which are not so important.

So:
Text links:
- inline, not-so-emphasized places
- links to both external and internal places
- usually used to cross-reference information

Buttons:
- NOT inline
- Usually to leads to places within the same site
- Leads to emphasized locations such as objective pages (download links, buy now links, and main navigation)
- are used to DO something (ex. Add Location, Digg This, Delete This, etc.)

[flikQ]

People also generally assume that buttons perform a specified action, such as to edit something, because of the familiarity of most operating systems.

[Parallax]

Here is a nice article that can help you decide how to weight your action items through design and placement. It is written with forms in mind, but the lesson can be extended further ...

http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/web_forms.html

[RonnieSan]

If you're talking about form buttons, I usually expect it to perform some kind of action like submitting a form. Other links that resemble buttons should have the right nomenclature to explain what will happen when clicked.

Text links should also explain what will happen when clicked. i.e. "Learn More About Our Products" as opposed to "Click Here."

Of course, text links have been SEO value.

[Peter Caddy]

Neither text links nor buttons carry an inherent implication of internal or external linking - it depends on the context and wording of the link/button.

[Pawel Debik]

Based on context then, it should probably be avoided to assign the function of linking to a new site to the partnersite button, if all the others are for local navigation.

example2.gif (3.22 KiB) Viewed 379 times

Or to put a text link where a button is expected:

example1.gif (1.44 KiB) Viewed 378 times

[dlseverns]

I'd say that from a very simplistic point of view, the average user doesn't care if it's a link or a button. Typically, you would want to place a button for something you want the users attention and a link for something less important. Let's say you want them to take part in a survey, to continue to the survey, use a button. to cancel or opt out, use a link.

Your example for the radio buttons above is almost there. You should always provide a "Submit" and a "Cancel". making the element you want them to click more prominent with a button and the cancel as a link would increase your chances of getting the form submitted.

[Piry]

Buttons don't have to change the page upon submitting the form. You can submit it and get the result using ajax.

As a user, I don't really care if that's a button or a link, at long as it looks like something i have to push (you can style the links to look like buttons) to perform an action.

As a coder, I like to keep buttons for form related stuff and links for everything else.

It's really a matter of personal choice here, but I guess most people like the stuff they're used to, buttons for forms and links for navigation.

[correia]

I agree with most of the comments above, the button should perform a "action" but isn't absolutely necessary to do it, it can also be linking, What i think is you need to keep a "structure" on your site, keep the same kind of actions associated to the same kind of linking.
About the "new window" i don't agree in sending a visitor to a new window without being the user to choose it...

Cheers.

[soumali]

button is used in html is of 2 types 1.button used in forms,they are of the form<input type="submit"> 2.<button> tag.The functionality is same. But the <button> tag has better rendering possibilities. As various browsers render the page elements in different styles, the usage of <button> tag gives an edge over input type is you want to make them look better and consistent over many browsers. You can also employ images in button tags.
however text links refer to the href attribute defines reference that the link refers to. Basically this is where the user will be taken if they wish to click this link.Use the <a></a> tags to define the start and ending of an anchor. Decide what type of href attribute you need and place this attribute into the opening tag. The text you place between the opening and closing tags will be shown as the link on a page.

Hypertext references can be Internal, Local, or Global.
•Internal - Links to anchors on the current page
•Local - Links to other pages within your domain
•Global - Links to other domains outside of your site





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[Andy]

soumali, do yourself a favour and check the latest post date before submitting a comment. Nobody's interested in a thread that has been dead for 7 months.