Did you know that if you have a form on your page, users will more likely take the final step and send (submit) the form data if it says something other than the word “submit”? It’s true, and there are studies that prove it. And it’s pretty obvious why if you really stop to think about it. I mean, “submit” also means:

Submit: v. tr. To yield or surrender (oneself) to the will or authority of another.

Now that’s not a very soft and fuzzy feel-good message, is it?

You will get better results if your default submit button says something like, “Yes, Send Me More Information!”. Even better, reinforce what the reader has already seen (and thus has already cognitively processed) as the headline or link text to the page. For example, if the link they clicked said, “Register for an Account”, use the button text “Register”. If it said “Request a Quote”, label the button “Send Me The Quote!”. You get the idea.

Web developers sometimes forget that real human beings are submitting these forms and not robots. You want something from these people, something very valuable…so you darn well better talk to them like they are people, not robots!

Good UX (User Experience) is like good advertising. It doesn’t disrupt the user, it delights them. A great user experience will leave an indelible mark on the psyche and the happy user will tell all of her friends what a great product she has just found. It’s exactly like good advertising.

One of the problems with Web designers is that they often design to satisfy their own creative egos rather than the needs of their end-users. They forget that real people will be using their sites. Today’s designers need to worry less about winning awards and more about creating Web sites that actually deliver the information that people are looking for …quickly and easily.