Title: Usability in Icons
Context: The successful icon is in the details.
Synopsis: How should we choose which icon to use for representing a user action? Who cares, right? Icon-shmicon. Put a little picture up there and eventually after the user clicks it a few times, he’ll figure it out. On the other hand, we can just use an icon that totally makes sense to us (the design team) based on the fact that we know exactly what the action is going to be so drawing the connection is a no brainer. It is easy to overlook these details as minor speedbumps on the road to usability nirvana. Unfortunately, the reality is, if no one knows what that little picture stands for when they click on it then the odds of them clicking on it in the first place will be relatively small. And that would be a waste of a perfectly good icon.
Best Bit: “I’m a geek myself, so I can say it – only geeks understand link icons.”
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