10 golden rules for digital icons

摘要

Iconography adds invaluable assets to an increasing portfolio of interactions. While icon design abides by principles of good design, it plays by its own rules. Here are 10 to get you started. 01 Design on purpose Icons, like all elements of good design, must have a clear purpose. Before you even think about what sort of icons you want, you need to ask yourself: why? If your answer is "because they're pretty", then you should think twice before steaming ahead. In a visually overcrowded digital world even the prettiest icons will soon lose their lustre without meaning or purpose. We're going to start by looking at navigation. Facebook and Twitter are great examples of very simple and practical usage of icons for navigation. Having text alongside the icons is vital for users. There are far too many instances where abstract icons are used inconsistently with or without text, or where conventions are disregarded, resulting in users being unable to find what they're looking for easily. For example, in the Skype iPhone app, there are three different icons used for finding people.