Designing with Progressive Enhancement: Building the Web that Works for Everyone

Chapter Fourteen. Buttons

Buttons are ubiquitous in websites and application interfaces—to submit data and initiate actions in toolbars, forms, and navigation controls—and designers frequently customize their appearance. We typically design custom-styled buttons for projects that must:

• Match the branding and presentation of the overall site or application

• Use color, texture, and dimension to convey button hierarchy—for instance, visually distinguishing primary and secondary actions

• Include icons to make them more uniquely identifiable and easier to scan, or compact, icon-only buttons, like those used in text-editing toolbars

• Introduce custom interaction states to provide better feedback, like a pressed state for touch-screen buttons ...