The Importance of Icons (e.g. at the Airport)

Icons are everywhere. Whether they supplement words or function as stand-alone imagery, they help communicate information to make our lives easier. Pictures have been around nearly as long as humans have, and those cave drawings and simple written languages have largely inspired the way we continue to express our basic actions, emotions, and nouns. The beautiful and powerful thing about icons is that they’re designed to be universally understood, no matter where you live or what verbal language you speak. That being said, I found my icon hunting at the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv particularly interesting. It’s a place where you’ll find travelers of all languages and backgrounds, and they’re united through visual communication helping to achieve their goals.

Airplane Departure Icon

I found my gate from the big sign that read “C6-C9” with an icon next to it of an airplane taking off (see image above). It’s true that the only information I really needed was the C6-C9, but the airplane enhanced the understanding of where I ultimately needed to be: on the airplane, beyond that gate. And imagine someone was in the airport for the first time. The concept of going to a gate might be strange, but seeing the visual of a taking-off airplane on any sign would indicate departures.

Handicap Icon

It seems that some of the most ubiquitous icons are found near public restrooms: men, women, and handicap. While there are signs and icons pointing out where the restrooms are located, there’s no need to indicate again once you’re at the restroom that it is, indeed, a restroom. But labeling men, women, and handicap is important, and a stand-alone icon does the trick. Unlike the typical men and women icons, the handicap icon of a wheelchair is often found beyond just the bathroom (anywhere a place is handicap accessible). So while the place or goal may alter, the means of handicap accessibility remains completely clear.

Phone Icon

Like the handicap icon, the phone icon at the phone booth requires no words to convey the point. There was an area near my gate to make phone calls, so anyone simply looking at the area would understand its purpose. The big yellow icon, though, helps travelers see it from afar. The icon accurately depicts the action that can be taken there in the simplest, most effective way possible.

Smoking Icon

Nowadays it’s customary to find smoking booths inside airports. I saw them with the words “smoking cabin” in both English and Hebrew, and with an icon in between. Since the words are present, the icon here serves as decoration while further emphasizing what’s going on. Often, we see the no smoking icon, shown as the standard cigarette in a circle with a line through it. In this case it’s the same icon, except without that line, clearly indicating that yes, you can smoke here. So not only was the icon clear by showing a picture of a cigarette, but it also so closely paralleled the no smoking icon with which we’re so familiar (surely smokers recognize the no smoking icon in numerous places, like on the airplane itself)!

Dining/Food Icon

I was a bit surprised to see a sign without English–it just had Hebrew and Arabic. But the icons were so communicative, it didn’t matter what language was present. The sign had two icons with an arrow pointing where they’d be found. It couldn’t be clearer what the icon of a knife and fork meant. Immediately I knew there was food that way, either as restaurants, cafes, stores, or kiosks to buy foods. Since a knife and fork are tools with which we use to eat (and only eat), they very clearly communicate that food is ahead. The second icon wasn’t as known, but with a present and book on it, I could logically infer that it was communicating gift shops and other stores for purchasing goods.

Humans are busy people, such as when we’re hustling in the airport to catch a flight. We want to get the bottom-lines through efficient communication whenever possible, and icons help convey just that. Their effectiveness and visual appearance are so attractive that it’s easy to assume they’ll forever remain relevant in our physical and digital world.