Buttons and conversion rate

Standard submit buttons over graphical ones

[Morgenhund]

I suspect that some percent of visitors in our web-shop are aged people, completely innocent in questions of computers, Internet and how a web page might look like.

It might sound weird, but I suspect that some people just cannot recognize that this pretty "add to cart" image (that we have carefully and elaborately created) is actually a button to press at.

From other side, everybody should have pressed a standard button in MS Windows, say to save a "Word" document to disk.

I wander if using a standard form submit buttons (<input type="submit" value="Add to Basket"> over <input type="image" src=...">) would increase action-recognition and hence conversion ratio.

What do you people think? If somebody tried it and noticed positive changes in conversion ratio?

[quiet_man]

I don't think there is a standard answer for this - surely it will depend on the page design and simplicity / complexity of the product or service offered? There is a big difference between a simple subscription sign-up page and a multi-option product page packed with images and specifications. On the first one, a default form submit button should be fine (assuming it is positioned and labelled clearly). But on a product page that contains a lot of data and images, it may need a more prominent graphical button to guide the user to the next step. That said, I too would love to hear results from anyone who has tested.

There is a load of good info in this thread, but it doesn't actually answer your question:

Does Your Buy Button Suck? [webmasterworld.com]

[Morgenhund]

We tried to keep everything "KISS" (keep it simple), rather usable, than designer-centric. Site's design is rather functional, so even the standard buttons should be hard to overlook.

I'll try to gather some stats (will take some months I recon), and will write to the forum.

[BradleyT]

I think before someone actually advances to making a purchase on the Internet they have surfed around enough to know that images can be links or buttons.

[lorax]

>> some people just cannot recognize that this pretty "add to cart" image ... is actually a button to press

Go with your gut. You prefer to use the KISS principal. Part of the KISS principal is "don't make me think." If it's not painfully obvious then it requires the user to think and you will lose sales because of it. The further from obvious it is the more sales you'll lose.

[Morgenhund]

>>> I think before someone actually advances to making a purchase on the Internet

We've participated in some seminars dedicated to our product and have seen that a part of our auditory are public sector servants, 50-years-old ladies from rural areas.

They have interest in our product because they cannot get it locally. They have state financing for purchasing our product (i.e. in our shop), and they have Internet access.

We made presentations to show how to purchase in Internet, but I wonder if any tool more advanced than a hammer might be too complicated.

[lorax]

>> any tool more advanced than a hammer might be too complicated

:)