I have a discussion with a colleague about what the "web standard" is for canceling in an form. In our discussion we have a "change password" page as example. We have a designed "send" button and "cancel" button. Both the same design.
He claims that in web standard a cancel button is no longer a button but a link transferring the user to another page. In my opinion, for those pages including a cancel button it actually is a cancel button which either resets the form and/or send the user to the prevision page.
What is correct, link or button, or both? Why?
Here is some actual primary research into just this question, I won't add any subjective opinion on top...
Primary & Secondary Actions in Web Forms - probably the best research I've come across into exactly this question
Reset and Cancel Buttons - an article from 2000, pointing out that reset functionality is harmful and cancel functions are often unnecessary
OK–Cancel or Cancel–OK? - sticking to a standard order helps usability
The best answer I could give - test both, see which one works best.
On a side note, I wouldn't call this 'web standard', that has meaning towards front-end web technologies (HTML, CSS etc.), I would say 'UI best practice' fits better.