Design buttons are a crucial component of user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, and they're key to offering an effective experience for visitors. UX buttons are designed to draw visitors’ attention to perform tasks, like adding a product to their cart or opening a blog post.

Buttons direct people to different pages or carry out functions, such as making purchases or submitting a response. They're frequently used as a call to action (CTA) to prompt people to respond, interact with the website, and produce a desired result. But you’ll need to think through your button design and placement to achieve those results. 

Let’s break down the guidelines for great button design — along with five examples for inspiration.

Button design best practices 

Buttons help drive conversions, whether those are newsletter sign-ups, sales, or survey responses. Here are some best practices to help you encourage visitors to notice and act on CTAs.

Make buttons evident

People using a website must be able to distinguish between what's "clickable" and what's not as soon as they see a button. Generally, people look for  familiar visual cues — recognizable shapes, sizes, and colors. 

The most commonly used button designs have square or rectangular shapes with rounded corners. These are easy to recognize and do a good job of complementing the input area (where text or icons go). Studies show that rounded corners improve input interpretation and direct our gaze to the center of the button. It’s also common to label buttons with the action they relate to, such as “buy” to add an item to a shopping cart or “subscribe” to subscribe to a newsletter. 

If these cues are missing, the visitor needs to spend more time and effort to decode the design element, resulting in a frustrating user experience.

Use different styles for different functions

Use various styles to highlight different functions. Different styles exist for the many actions site visitors can take, from ticking off options on a list to refreshing the page. Finsweet’s Accessible Form Filter Components site is a great source of accessibility-tested, clonable buttons for various needs.

Checkboxes, radio buttons, and multi-select chips typically have a two-dimensional appearance, while toggle buttons and choice chips have depth created by drop shadows. The former are generally used for minimalist designs (like smartphone operating systems), while the latter are used for websites that want to offer a 3D appearance with multiple layers. There’s no hard-and-fast rule here, but using different styles helps differentiate between functions and refines the user experience.

However, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, and it's important to consider a website's audience, goal, and overall design before choosing the right style. Rectangles are the most common button shape, but you can opt for other shapes to make them stand out or match the brand identity. If you decide to stray from conventional designs, we recommend conducting usability tests to ensure people have a pleasant experience despite the deviation.

Use colors and shapes to create a hierarchy 

The primary action must be visually appealing and stand out from its surrounding elements. This way, each element is part of a button ecosystem that forms a visual hierarchy. For example, adding a color like blue or green to an otherwise grayscale web page draws attention effectively.

Secondary actions, such as "Back," "Delete," or "Cancel," should be the least appealing. Doing so reduces the possibility of people misclicking while simultaneously pointing them in the right direction.

VIBRAND DESIGN’s website features numerous powerful examples of button style hierarchy at work. Choose from multiple cloneable versions of buttons with the same function but unique styles to draw attention or blend into the background.

Prioritize accessibility

It's essential to design websites that are accessible to visitors with diverse needs. As a web designer, you're responsible for making a website's products and services accessible to as many people as possible. Keep this in mind for all UI elements — not just buttons.

Make buttons large enough to be clicked comfortably (particularly on mobile devices), use appropriate color contrast ratios to ensure buttons are visible, and use web-safe fonts.

Over 62% of people use mobile devices to browse the web. Make sure to optimize UI design buttons and use responsive web design for all devices and screen sizes so your content is accessible to the largest number of people possible. 

Change the look depending on the state

People may expect buttons to react when they click on them or hover over them. Depending on the action, this could be visual or aural feedback. When people don't see or hear a response, they could assume the website didn't receive the command and try again. Not only is this frustrating, but such actions often result in numerous unwanted clicks.

To avoid this, use the correct styles and actions for button states. Each function needs distinct contextual cues that set it apart from surrounding elements. One should know when a button is active, loading, or disabled. 

If a customer is online shopping, a disabled “Add to cart” button will let them know the product is unavailable. If the button changes color when the shopper hovers over it, they know the button is ready for them to click. These slight visual changes help people intuitively understand a site’s design. 

The Cloneable Liquid Effect Button Animation from Veza Digital uses different states to catch visitors’ attention. Hovering over the button with the mouse triggers a dynamic, liquid-like animation that causes the button to fill from white to black, appearing more obvious and clickable against the white background.