Identifying something is simpler than Remembering.
(Iconography performs essential part in Interaction Design)

At some point, almost everyone interacts with Iconography. It is interactive, time-saving and informative. Iconography is the use of images and symbols to represent a subject matter, movement or ideas. It has its influence before the invention of writing, even before humans developed the ability to speak. So they found ways to communicate their thoughts and ideas to others through signs and symbols.
Using of icons are coming from a very primitive period, and still, people are using, and it will be utilised in future also. Icons have its own influence irrespective of any period. Before the invention of written and verbal communication, there was a pictorial form of communication; people use to communicate through drawing pictures and symbols. I feel every alphabet from “A” to “Z” can be considered as symbols, and when we arrange them, it creates a word, for example: “APPLE” is a word and it’s a name of a fruit.
Visual communication is more influential and efficient than written and verbal communication. I prefer icons and symbols more than words as they give us information at blink of an eye. People belonging to any country or speaking any language can easily understand icons, images or symbols because they surround us and they guide us everywhere whenever we need any information or help.
Iconographic content reaches the brain faster than textual content. It gives accurate and to the point information and also store in long term memory. Our brain takes a long time to catch the textual/ verbal based representation, but on the other hand, iconic or symbolic communication takes less time.
In ancient days, people communicated through rock art, paintings, etc. So that vast majority of our human history described without a written word and it gives us an idea that our brain can communicate visual data faster than textual data.

Here I am sharing a real experience of mine. When I was traveling in the metro for the first time, I was not at all aware of the routes, timings, stops and much more things about the train. I was baffled about which train will go to my destination and by which route. I thought of asking people around me, but I realized that asking people and taking help from them will be time-consuming. Suddenly I saw some footprint marks with yellow colors on the floor of the platform, I started following the foot print marks, and it helped me to reach that train which I was searching for. Then I realized that signs and symbols are meant to guide us and assist us in every step of our day to day routine life. And it also helps us to save our time in every possible manner.
Here I am giving another example. In a traffic signal, we all can see the red, orange and green symbol and we all know that red symbolizes “STOP,” orange signifies “WAIT, ” and green symbolizes “GO” which we follow very smoothly and without any bar. But if there would be a word written on it instead of color, people might face a huge problem because words sometimes cannot be visible from a long distance but a color can be visible from a long distance. Color has always been recognized for its symbolic power, each and every color has its own meaning.
As Jakob Nielsen Says, “Recognizing something is easier than remembering it.” This means that you should minimize the user’s memory load by making actions and options visible.
A good icon is always considered with the combination of both forms and colors. An icon should have minimum forms, and it should not be clutter which confuses the users. It should have a sensible color scheme which can convey message and meaning to the end users.
Nowadays we can see the different forms of icons in our mobile interface design, where we can see different icons which help us to navigate and give us information about the application. Because of icons, applications become more interactive with the users and more user-friendly. For example, in WhatsApp messenger, while chatting, we can express

Our emotions through different icons, sometimes without writing any word we use those impressive symbols which make the conversation more interesting. One famous symbol which is called face with it is crying tears of joy, this icon has been in the top 10 most popular icon on Emojipedia for all of 2015, and was deemed the 2015 word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary. That is why this application is more popular all over the world.
At last, we can conclude that icons are the story tellers. They make our day to day life easier. If we want to make our designs more interactive, then icons play a significant role in its way to enhance our design. It is important for the people to interact with your design easily and understand your product and service. Modern applications are already successfully experimented with such information, so if people understand your product and services quickly, then they visit the site again and again.
