button design

My web design students love to make buttons for their pages. They often don't put much thought into them, but they like to make them. The prettier. The flashier. All the better.

They hate modifying a button after it's been made. I suspect the same complaint is made by English teachers about getting students to revise/edit their work. The attitude seems to be do it once and it's done. Already done that once. Why do it again?

One of the questions I often ask when I'm looking at a design is "What does this button do?". Too many times I hear, "You click it to find out." (Which means in kid talk....I forget.) I then state that if I have to start clicking buttons just to see what they do, I'm probably going to move on to another web site. I then try to guide the discussion towards what is the best design for a button; an icon, text or both?

Here is a short article that gives the advantages of each choice. The bottom line according to this article: Text and image combination work best.