[mikeryan]

I think his example may be counter to his point.

I didn't recognize one brand from their buttons (even Facebook which I kicked myself for not recognizing)

[notatoad]

I recognized facebook because i recognized the facebook blue, not the button. And the amazon button is very distinctive. The rest, not so much.

[potatolicious]

Ditto here. I recognized Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Yahoo, and Amazon not because of the button designs themselves, but because of their colors.

Google has a very recognizable three-tone UI which extends beyond their buttons. Facebook, Pinterest, and Yahoo all have a unique shade of a particular color that they claim as branding (blue, red, and purple, respectively).

If anything this seems to speak to the importance of branding colors than button design.

[geoka9]

Me neither. And I'm a developer and I use most of those sites daily. What can be expected of an average web user?

I really think we've got too crazy about design. We've even come up with clever terms like "pixel blindness" to shut out dissent.

Users don't seem to care.

[dlss]

Same here. At least for me, it looks like buttons don't matter. Huh.

[arnoldb0620]

Also the same for me.

[landr0id]

Same here. I usually recognize buttons from the context of how they're used and the associated text/font. I didn't recognize a single one of these though.

[deutronium]

Same here, I couldn't recognise any.