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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.
Who is correct? Link or button... or both? And why? Any links to where this kind of standard is decided?
Br,
Paul Peelen
EDIT I guess the answer with most votes will be the "correct answer"?
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Because Back is such a strong behavior on the Web, it is usually not necessary to offer explicit Cancel buttons. If the user asks for something but doesn't want it, then you can be sure that it's Back button time. Offer a Cancel button when users may fear that they have committed to something they want to avoid.
Cancel buttons sometimes have different names. “Not Now” and “Maybe Later” are some dismissive labels one could use. But there's one case when the Cancel button should not say “Cancel” nor use a dismissive label. This is when the main call to action is destructive.
The cancel button will close and lose changes. If they want to periodically save changes then add an Apply button. This will save and continue without closing. Following the above, 'Close' only makes sense as the only button under a dialog.
So 'Cancel' is always on the right of OK button for Windows platform. Apple MacOS Guidelines says that “A button that initiates an action is furthest to the right.
Here is some actual primary research into just this question, I won't add any subjective opinion on top...
Primary & Secondary Actions in Web Forms - probably the best research I've come across into exactly this question
Reset and Cancel Buttons - an article from 2000, pointing out that reset functionality is harmful and cancel functions are often unnecessary
OK–Cancel or Cancel–OK? - sticking to a standard order helps usability
The best answer I could give - test both, see which one works best.
On a side note, I wouldn't call this 'web standard', that has meaning towards front-end web technologies (HTML, CSS etc.), I would say 'UI best practice' fits better.
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Why make it easy for users to undo all they've typed in by mistake? Why not prevent accidental form canceling?
Why isn't the cockpit light switch next to the eject button?
By making the cancel button different from the submit one, you easily convey the idea that they do different things. So long as it does not look like the submit button, you're safe.
Make it a link.
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