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UI best practice question: Cancel button or Cancel link

Asked 2011-01-19T09:51:01.970
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I have a discussion with a colleague about what the "web standard" is for canceling in an form. In our discussion we have a "change password" page as example. We have a designed "send" button and "cancel" button. Both the same design.

He claims that in web standard a cancel button is no longer a button but a link transferring the user to another page. In my opinion, for those pages including a cancel button it actually is a cancel button which either resets the form and/or send the user to the prevision page.

What is correct, link or button, or both? Why?

html css button web-standards
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I would say a link and button are exactly the same thing. A button can be a link and text can be a link.

Where the difference lies is between the focus of the default action and it's counterpart.

The default option should always be in focus and the counter option should always be relatively close by.

By in focus I mean the "Send" button could be bigger or brighter as long as its more noticeable then the "cancel" button.

Your friend probably thinks you should use a text link for this reason as it does follow this method. But a CSS button can be colorized to be less prominent in the same way.

answered 2011-01-19T09:59:05.290

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