Learning to See Iconography
Understanding visual messages
UX Designers often choose icons rather than text for many reasons. One major reason: icons take up less space. However, icons can have different meanings for different cultures, and sometimes no meaning whatsoever.
Icons are everywhere in our daily lives, from our computers to our morning commute. Icons serve as visual cues and ideally, a system of global communication. The best icons are simple and therefore effective.
Icons on Signage
I travel a lot. On an average trip to a new place, I see lots of icons to direct me and let me know I am on the right track.
I live in the state of Colorado. I normally don’t pay attention to signs on routes that I frequently take. I know that sounds terrible, but I think we all tend to get on autopilot, especially in the morning before we’ve had our coffee.
But one day I got to thinking: If I were a tourist to Colorado, what would I see? Learning to turn my eyes toward signs and icons proved to be a difficult task. Like putting on glasses for the first time, I started to notice and document some of the signs that I would normally overlook.
Every single street sign, store sign, symbol and poster began to convey to me a rich array of complex information.
Pearl Street Mall, Boulder, CO
Pretty straightforward. When you’re at a pedestrian mall, there are signs posted demonstrating “what not to do” to make sure everyone’s experience at the Pearl Street Mall is safe and pleasurable.
Red Rocks Amphitheater and Trails, Morrison, CO
There are few Colorado natives who haven’t been to a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater by night. By day, though, there is wonderful hiking. This sign helps visitors quickly see the direction to go if they want to hike or mountain bike.
Saddle Rock Trail, Chautauqua, Boulder, CO
The icon in this sign has nothing to do with the fact that there was a severe explosion and that hikers should stay on the trail. This “user experience” was not globally thought out.
This sign provided me with a realization about UX design: Text or text and image together is likely the best choice for the following situations:
- Applications used by multiple cultures with different meanings for iconography
- Older or less technically savvy audiences
- Applications with a few very important actions or buttons
- Applications needing a very fast learning curve
Downtown Aquarium, Denver, CO
Coloradans as a whole are pretty conscious about keeping themselves and other creatures around them safe. This sign tells folks not to touch or feed the fish (though the words in conjunction with the sign could describe what is being asked of the visitors such as “Thank you for not touching or feeding the fish.”). However, the symbol is pretty easily recognizable to people who are visiting from other countries and don’t speak the language, so props there.
What makes iconography fascinating is that once users get used to associations like the one above, they become automatic and effortless in a way that glancing over groups of letters can never be.
Coors Field, Denver, CO
Though marijuana is legal in Colorado, the use of it is not permitted in public areas, even where smoking cigarettes is allowed. This is a sign that is posted outside of Coors Field, the Colorado Rockies baseball stadium.
Summary
My eyes are now opened to signage like they have never been before. Iconography, the visual language used to represent features, functionality, or content, is meant to have simple, visual elements that are recognized and understood immediately.
When I design a set of icons for the web, I recall my experience of opening my eye to the signs I saw around me in Colorado, and I’m sure to design simple, easily understood icons.
