Icon Reflection
Do you ever get the feeling that you’re on autopilot? It’s not until someone points something out that you start to notice it. It’s like when we decide to throw on that bright orange shirt, all of a sudden everyone around you also decided to wear orange on this day.
Have you ever stopped to notice all of the signs and symbols around us that direct us and show us their functions? Well, now you’re going to start noticing.
It’s not until you get a new toy or go to a new place that you realize the abundance and importance of these icons and symbols that we use on an everyday basis.
Because of the commonly used icons that we have learned to recognize, we realize how to turn machines on and off, we learn to find our way to the bathroom at a busy airport due to the recognizable symbol of a man and woman with a line down the middle along with an arrow to point us there. We know where we can park our car in a new city when we see the big blue letter P. We know which button to press on our coffee machine if we want an espresso or a regular coffee because of the size difference of the coffee icons. Even in a new country we can learn how to use foreign appliances such as washing machines because of the use of icons we have learned to recognize the meaning to. For example, even though I was not familiar with degrees celcius, the snow flurry on the washing machine indicated to me that the water setting was cold.
But there are times when icons confuse us instead of direct us. When companies try to reinvent the wheel, get creative and unique which can be appropriate on certain occasions, can also wind up leaving the user frustrated and confused if there is no label to an uncommonly used icon. While I was in France, I felt overwhelmed by their television remote controls. There were so many icons I did not recognize and since I didn’t have the manual, I simply gave up trying to press every button just to see what would happen.
When it comes to digital icons it’s important to pay attention to the design decisions behind them because it can have a major impact in your design hierarchy. Heavy, 3D, filled in with sharp edge icons will immediately take all of the attention away from the other content. I believe the design will have a cleaner, more balanced feel not overwhelming to the eye when the icons are of light line weight, rounded edges and outlined versus filled in. The filled in icons represent to me that the icon is currently being used or is a way to show the user where they are in the page. Regardless of personal taste, it’s important to always keep your main demographic in mind, to create memorable icons and symbols that are recognizable to them to make their experience as easy and seamless as possible each time they use your product.
