Provide user interface components that are consistently labelled
no. 142
Make sure call to actions repeated on multiple pages are labelled consistently
Consistency and predictability are some of the most important aspects to factor in when building user interfaces that are intuitive and easy to use. Even to this day, it is not unusual to find various calls to action, such as buttons or links sharing the same functionality (print this page, order this catalog, edit this information, etc.), that are used on multiple pages, but are labelled in ways that are inconsistent from one page to another. This creates potential confusion for users, especially when these users deal with cognitive impairments of any kind, or when assistive technologies such as screen readers are involved. Calls to action that provide the same functionality and are labelled consistently contribute to helping users build confidence into the system, and their own ability to predict how to use this system efficiently.
To do so, simply make sure that user interface components that are repeated across multiple pages are consistently named using the same text labels. Doing so will help users reliably refer to these components as navigation benchmarks when going from one page to [...]