ICONS in everyday life from a UX perspective.
A UX perspective on icons and their use in everyday life illustrated by four everyday examples.
Icons guide us in the most innocuous way in everyday life — our routine is spared with small indicators assisting us in completing tasks.
Sitting at my desk, thinking about Icons — I suddenly noticed these small symbols all around me.
Here below is a compilation of five icons that jumped to my eyes and some thoughts about their design. Icons appear where a task is expected to be completed by the user.
This Icon is a central circle with expanding half-circle expanding from the focal point with increasing symmetrical diameters. The icon overall visual looks like expanding waves —like a wifi router.
When thinking about the practical working of the device, the logo makes sense in so far it represents what the object does i.e: creating an alternating electromagnetic field to charge the battery. If one looks at an industrial design representation of the process, the designer’s choice of icon becomes clear.
However, from a UX Design perspective, the icon might not be the most appropriate icon to guide the user to the object’s proper use. Unless the user is familiar with the object, a user-centric design might argue that its use could remain undiscoverable to a first-time user.
A wireless charger being of relatively new technology (compatible with only the latest batteries) — the likelihood of a user having encountered one is low-ish. Using a technical icon runs the risk to be confusing and therefore not effectively get the user to complete the task. (put their phone on the platform to let it charge)
Arguably a better icon for a wireless charger should direct the user to engage with the object by placing their phones on it or signalling the charging effect of the object.
The next icons I noticed are the cancel and confirm button on my credit card reader. Instead of going for a check — an international sign of confirmation and a cross — icon to cancel, the producer decided to go with the letter “C” and the small word “OK”.
Relying on language to create an icon is kind of problematic because it restricts comprehension to people who are familiar with this language — arguably English is still the most internationally spoken language but the beauty of icons is that it strives to be understood by the people regardless of their backgrounds.
From a UX Designer perspective — an international mark might have been a more far-reaching design.
Next, I noticed the Biometric passport icon. The biometric passport icon falls under a similar category to the wireless charger icon, in the sense that it represents relatively new technology.
However, this icon has been wildly adopted internationally to come to signify biometric chips. In the sense that it has been adopted as an industry standard, it does enhance user comprehension.
Lastly, sticky notes from Muji have a small icon that attracted my attention. Even without being able to read katakana, it is clear from the revolving motion that the symbol represents recycling. The Icon reads “Pu-Ra” in katakana which is the condensation of the word “purasuchikku” — plastic in Japanese!
From a UX design perspective, this icon is very well designed because it is possible to infer its meaning from its design. Even a non-japanese can understand the meaning of the icon as recyclable.
In conclusion, the value of an icon from a user-centric perspective depends on many variables related to the context of the design. A very well designed icon from an industrial design perspective might not work in UX.
