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by will_work4tears 5105 days ago
I've been a firm "eye-roller" at this idea for a long time. My boss often uses terms like "call to action" and has me change text because he feels it might "confuse" people. I do it, don't get me wrong, but I give an extra strong roll with my eyes as I'm doing it.

I get that there really are dumb people out there, but if "submit" confuses you when you are "submitting an application" (of which the button is "submit your application" rather than "submit") you might not get the job. Likely so even if you are applying to McDonalds.

This article though... Almost turns me to his side, at least on this topic. Nice read.

2 comments

Your statement 'there are some really dumb people out there' could also be phrased as 'there are some really smart people out there who have better things to do than surf the Web all day' and just want to get to the information they are looking for without having to decipher an interface.
When you have to "decipher" the difference between "submit" and "submit your application", smart is not a valid descriptor.

edit: I guess I should state that I'm describing the submit button on an actual form, with the title "application" or some such and that the user is entering in data (a lot in this case) and that "submit" is pretty much industry standard for forms

"Send" and "Save" are just fine in the majority of cases. Simple language.