Button Mania!
The age old question button placement
Hello fellow designers! For anyone who has a burning desire to learn more about button placement — this article is for you. While working on the design team for a health insurance company I noticed the inconsistent button placement throughout the experience. Therefore, this research came out of a need to standardize button guidelines and patterns within our design system. Button placement may seem like a small detail, but it plays a major role in usability and user flow. Users bring years of expectations from operating systems and web patterns — so when buttons appear in unexpected places, it can slow them down. The right placement depends on context (desktop vs. mobile, short form vs. long page), but the most important rule is consistency across your experience.
Left vs. Right Alignment
Left-aligned (Windows convention)
✅ Pros: Follows F-pattern reading order, good for forms, faster keyboard navigation, matches enterprise/Windows applications.
❌ Cons: Can feel less “conclusive,” since actions typically flow to the right in reading/scanning patterns.
Right-aligned (Mac convention)
✅ Pros: Matches macOS guidelines, aligns with the idea of “moving forward” or “concluding” on the right, feels natural for dialogs and “Next” actions.
❌ Cons: Breaks expectations for Windows-heavy users, slightly less efficient for keyboard-first workflows.
Desktop & Mobile Considerations
On desktop, place the primary button where the task ends — usually at the bottom of forms, aligned with content flow.
On mobile, ergonomics matter: sticky or full-width buttons at the bottom of the screen often work best, staying within easy thumb reach.
The Bottom Line
Neither left nor right is universally correct. Mac and Windows users are used to different standards, so reviewing your audience and usability metrics can guide your choice. What matters most is that your placement is logical, predictable, and consistent across your product. That way, users never have to hunt for the next step — they just flow naturally into it.
⭐️ An extra fun fact
Right aligned buttons can be traced back to the Gutenberg Diagram in newspapers!
"While the Gutenberg diagram was initially developed for newspaper pages, it can be used in any visual design discipline. According to our information hierarchy, we can place more important elements and content in the Primary Optical, Strong Fallow, and Terminal Areas, which will enhance content comprehension and increase engagement. The Gutenberg Diagram dictates that the most essential messages receive the most attention in the top left and the calls to action in the bottom right." - 3.7 Designs