Not an issue, more a disscusion.

 

It's a pet hate of mine when designers take established icons and use them for a different purpose.

For example, look at the quick nav icon at the top of this page... Is that or is that not a location marker icon?

 

It may be silly but it really bugs me haha.

 

There's more sites but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

 

Has anyone noticed this on any other sites?

Do people think these icons should be established for a certain use or is mix and matching acceptable in a world obsessed with usability?

Honestly, it really comes down to whether or not your users will understand what it is. Usability tests should reveal that quite quickly.

 

If it's something they'll use every day they will probably learn what it is quickly, but there will be a little friction there. Keeping with convention will help reduce the friction and get you a better first impression, but sometimes you just need an icon for a totally obscure concept and it's best to use the closest thing instead of trying to teach people what a new icon means.

In principal I'm with you on this Mike. That is, most definitely, a map pin / location marker above.

 

However, some icons gain so much traction and become such a part of our collective consciousness that they continue to be used even when their original meaning is lost. For example, the 'save' icon that's a 3.5" diskette, or mobile phone icon that looks like a Motoral Mitac. The list could go on and on. These things aren't recognisable to my kids, as they hold zero meaning for generations that didn't experience them, and for such reasons we have to be very careful about choosing 'standard' icons.

 

Take the cog icon. I think almost all of us accept that as an indicator for settings, but why? Machines aren't all built with cogs any more. In fact, I think most of us would be hard pressed to find anything containing a cog in our homes.

Related: who actually uses a magnifying glass to look for things?

In principal I'm with you on this Mike. That is, most definitely, a map pin / location marker above.

 

However, some icons gain so much traction and become such a part of our collective consciousness that they continue to be used even when their original meaning is lost. For example, the 'save' icon that's a 3.5" diskette, or mobile phone icon that looks like a Motoral Mitac. The list could go on and on. These things aren't recognisable to my kids, as they hold zero meaning for generations that didn't experience them, and for such reasons we have to be very careful about choosing 'standard' icons.

 

Take the cog icon. I think almost all of us accept that as an indicator for settings, but why? Machines aren't all built with cogs any more. In fact, I think most of us would be hard pressed to find anything containing a cog in our homes.

 

I kind of disagree on the point of the floppy disk being used to save. After a certain amount of time, these icons and symbols become a symbol for something entirely different. I haven't used a floppy disk in years, but that will always mean 'save' for me. I think future generations will perhaps have zero knowledge of what that 'thing' is but they'll know it means 'save'. It's like a barber shop sign, that red and white swirl. It doesn't represent anything, but you know it's a barbers shop. (The reason it exists is that before most of the population could read, symbols and colours like this would be used everywhere to mean a particular thing, so you knew what shop it was. For some reason the only ones that have truly stuck are barbers shops and pubs [e.g Queens Head, because it was the pub with the picture of the Queen's Head painted on it's sign.])

 

As for the question asked, I don't think you can put a particular restraint on what icons should be used where, but it's common sense to stick to the conventions as it makes everything a better experience for everyone. The person who stuck that pin up there either wasn't thinking, or didn't care because it was a quick fix and it was 1.30am and they really should be getting to bed so a random icon here or there didn't really matter

Edited August 16, 201214 yr by Fran Haselden

I just think we need to be a little careful, and conscious of, the fact that some icons representations are more transient than others.

 

Arrows, globe, speech bubbles, people, buildings, the sun, clouds, trees; all pretty future-safe I would say.

 

Magnifying glass, mobile phone, TV, etc; I'm not so sure.

 

You mention the floppy disk in my example. It means something to you because you have used one. Or did you?? Was it a 'floppy' disk or a hard diskette? I'm old enough to remember the very floppy 8" disk (500kb!) for some reason we continued to call them floppy a long time after they stopped being floppy. Now (as we move rapidly towards a future with no disc at all), I think it is utterly meaningless.

Ever take one apart? Same thin disc, they just made them smaller and the plastic sleeve rigid (the funky dust-flap mechanism wwas nifty though). We live through changes - I've booted off tape, both sizes of floppy and hard disk. Right now it's solid state. My kids - who knows? Cybernetics? Wearable smart fabrics? World changes, we can either yell at it to get off our lawn or jump on for the ride.

Edited August 16, 201214 yr by Renaissance-Design

and how often the polaroid photograph (i.e. squarish photo wiht thick white border) icon or image is used to represent 'photo' when most photos for the last decade or three or more have been printed borderless and not square

It's like a barber shop sign, that red and white swirl. It doesn't represent anything,...

 

well it did actually Barbers were very skilled at using blades and because of this also offered blood letting services. Doing this from memory, but I'm sure there is more information on the web, the red represented blood, the white bandages and the two pot shapes at the end for the blood container and leeches. I could be wrong as it's a long time since I read the book that explained it all and I don't want to just copy/paste from a wiki.

May have given a new meaning to "something for the weekend, sir"?!

I kind of disagree on the point of the floppy disk being used to save. After a certain amount of time, these icons and symbols become a symbol for something entirely different.

 

totally agree with this.

 

Certain symbols come to mean certain things.

Like the pin above, which has commonly become the symbol for a location marker but who here has broken out an OS map and stuck one of those pins in it? I'm guessing very few, if any.

 

It's more the use of these symbols that have come to be directly linked with a distinct function being used for a completely different function (as the location marker above is being used as an icon for 'quick menu').

 

As to respond @Inspired... Let's go back to that OS map analogy. I see tourist hikers everyday in my local pub with their maps spread out on the table peeping through magnifying glasses trying to find a new route to scale that mountain etc... only difference is the magnifying glasses look nothing like the icons we use

A certain amount of evolution is to be expected, traffic signs are but one example. Sadly I believe we are still a decade away from having a definative set of website icons that is as universally informative across ages & cultures like the airport terminal iconography.

 

I'm with Mike the use of that map pin is a thorn in my mind. Of course what gets really confusing is the magnify glass, as many use that symbol for search functions which is something I could never quite get my head around.

I'm a assuming the magnifying glass might have something to do with Sherlock Holmes and thus images of old school investigators 'searching' for clues using a magnifying glass. Dunno though.

 

Of course i'm not saying we should use a standardised set of icons. After all we all crave creativity however what i am saying is why take an established icon such as the map pin and use it outside of its intended definition? What next, magnifying glass as colour switcher?

 

Consider the following, surely these (excuse the quality, i was working quick ) are the more accepted icons for quick navigation/menus?

 

 

Consider the following, surely these (excuse the quality, i was working quick ) are the more accepted icons for quick navigation/menus?

 

This is a question of numerous, and sometimes heated, debate at moment. It looks like emerging winner as a standard nav icon will be the three bars ☰ (representing an unordered list). I favour any icon with a unicode character, though U+2630 is actually the trigram for heaven

Edited August 17, 201214 yr by Inspired

Oh, seems I can't use html here...

 

Can I disable the editor??

Not a bad icon for it either.

It's for the ease of identifying but as i've said before i'm not against people using what they want, i just find it somewhat daft to use an established icon for a different purpose.

 

I also agree with the use of entities and unicode characters. Keeps things nice and simple.

Edited August 17, 201214 yr by MikeChipshop

Oh, seems I can't use html here...

 

Can I disable the editor??

 

You used to be able to do it from your settings but bare in mind that was before the 'update'.

You used to be able to do it from your settings but bare in mind that was before the 'update'.

I can't see anything. Bummer.

... i just find it somewhat daft to use an established icon for a different purpose.

I'd go so far as to say it was irresponsible as it forces people to think about what you (the designer) might have intended. Usability 101; don't make the user think!

I can't see anything. Bummer.

 

No it appears to have gone AWOL. However i did find the ignore users section!

 

I'd go so far as to say it was irresponsible as it forces people to think about what you (the designer) might have intended. Usability 101; don't make the user think!

 

Exactly what i'm thinking about. Mainly because i clicked the above icon wondering what the hell it was ha