Form elements - Buttons

Use buttons to help users carry out an action on a page like starting an application or saving their progress.

We have 4 buttons:

• primary button
• secondary button
• white button on solid background colour (reverse button)
• warning button

Primary button

<button class="nhsuk-button" data-module="nhsuk-button" type="submit">
  Save and continue
</button>

{% from 'button/macro.njk' import button %}

{{ button({
  text: "Save and continue"
}) }}

When to use a primary button

Use a primary button to help users carry out an action on a page like starting an application or saving their progress.

More about when to use and not use buttons.

Secondary button

<button class="nhsuk-button nhsuk-button--secondary" data-module="nhsuk-button" type="submit">
  Find my location
</button>

{% from 'button/macro.njk' import button %}

{{ button({
  text: "Find my location",
  classes: "nhsuk-button--secondary"
}) }}

When to use a secondary button

Use a secondary button on pages that have more than 1 action or when users are not noticing standard link text.

More about when to use and not use buttons.

White button on solid background colour (reverse button)

<button class="nhsuk-button nhsuk-button--reverse" data-module="nhsuk-button" type="submit">
  Save and continue
</button>

{% from 'button/macro.njk' import button %}

{{ button({
  text: "Save and continue",
  classes: "nhsuk-button--reverse"
}) }}

When to use a white button on solid background colour

White buttons on solid background colour are good on components like interruption cards where link text, primary and secondary buttons would be lost.

More about when to use and not use buttons.

Warning button

<button class="nhsuk-button nhsuk-button--warning" data-module="nhsuk-button" type="submit">
  Yes, delete this vaccine
</button>

{% from 'button/macro.njk' import button %}

{{ button({
  "text": "Yes, delete this vaccine",
  "classes": "nhsuk-button--warning"
}) }}

Warning buttons are designed to make users think carefully before they use them. They are only effective if used very sparingly. Most services should not need one.

Only use warning buttons for actions with serious destructive consequences that a user cannot easily undo. For example, permanently deleting an account.

When letting users carry out an action like this, it's a good idea to include an additional step which asks them to confirm it.

In this instance, use another style of button for the initial call to action, and a warning button for the final confirmation.

Do not only rely on the red colour of a warning button to communicate the serious nature of the action. This is because not all users will be able to see the colour or will understand what it means. Make sure the context and button text make clear what will happen if the user selects it.

When to use buttons

Use buttons to start or save transactional journeys.

When not to use buttons

Do not use buttons as links:

• to pages which are not part of your user journey
• from 1 flat content page to another
• to external websites

Try not to have multiple buttons on 1 page. Follow GOV.UK guidance on structuring forms and starting with one thing per page.

How to use buttons

The GOV.UK design system suggests using a button to help users carry out an action on a page like starting an application or saving their progress.

Write button text in sentence case and describe the action the button performs. For example "Save and continue" or "Start now".

Align the primary action button to the left edge of your form.

Disabled buttons

Disabled buttons have poor contrast and can confuse some users. Only use them if user research shows it makes things easier for users to understand.

We have developed disabled versions of the 3 buttons but we haven't tested them yet. You can get the latest disabled button code in the NHS.UK frontend library in GitHub.

Colour contrast

All 4 buttons pass AA guidelines for colour contrast. The disabled versions of the buttons do not meet accessibility colour contrast ratios. If your team has discovered a user need for disabled buttons, use them carefully and test them with users with access needs.

Stop users from accidentally sending information more than once

Sometimes, users double click buttons because they:

• have used operating systems where they have to double click items to make them work
• are experiencing a slow connection which means they are not given feedback on their action quickly enough
• have motor impairments such as hand tremors which cause them to click the button involuntarily

In some cases, this can mean their information is sent twice.

For example, the GOV.UK Notify team discovered that a number of users were receiving invitations twice, because the person sending them was double clicking the "send" button.

If your research shows that users are frequently sending information twice, you can configure the button to ignore the 2nd click.

To do this, set the data-prevent-double-click attribute to true. You can do this directly in the HTML or, if you're using Nunjucks, you can use the Nunjucks macro as shown in this example.

<button class="nhsuk-button" data-module="nhsuk-button" data-prevent-double-click="true" type="submit">
  Save and continue
</button>

{% from 'button/macro.njk' import button %}

{{ button({
  text: "Save and continue",
  preventDoubleClick: true
}) }}

This feature will prevent double clicks for users that have JavaScript enabled. However, you should also think about the issue server-side to protect against attacks.

In the case of slow connections, aim to give the user information about what's happening, for example, by showing a loading spinner or a modal, before using data-prevent-double-click.

Research

We based our buttons on the GOV.UK designs. But because our logo is a blue rectangle and a number of our components (including panel headings) have squared edges, we decided that GOV.UK buttons did not stand out enough. The square buttons did not look clickable next to the other square components.

We made the buttons more "buttony" by rounding the corners (adding corner radiuses). There is research to suggest that rounded corners make things more clickable.

Our testing confirmed this. Users were able to complete tasks using buttons and they did not confuse them with non-clickable components.

Help us improve this guidance

Share insights or feedback and take part in the discussion. We use GitHub as a collaboration space. All the information on it is open to the public.

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If you have any questions, get in touch with the service manual team.

Updated: July 2024