You Saw a Gazillion Icons Today — You Just Didn’t Realize It
It’s obvious to us that icons are all around us, but what’s fascinating is that they’re so ubiquitous we don’t even realize that we see them and that they’re assisting us. Of course, that’s the point of an icon, to fly under the radar and subconsciously tell you do do something so that you don’t have to think about it. I found six icons around my house and sketched them out (I’m bad at this). What actually did surprise me was my dishwasher icon, so let’s get right into it…
1. Rewind/Go Back
For those of us old enough to remember using VHS tapes, you literally had to re-wind the physical film around the first wheel so that the movie could start at the beginning. When I see this icon on my remote, it tells me that it will rewind the movie I’m watching. But my nephew, who is four years old, doesn’t know what rewind is. So he calls it the “go back” button, which is precisely what it does as well.
2. Play/Start
This was the one that surprised me. We’ve seen this icon on multimedia devices forever, CD players, music apps on our phone, the tv remote, car radios, etc. We know it as “play/start the song/movie/show” but in the context of my dishwasher, it just means, “start the cycle”. It surprised me because I understand it, and had never before noticed that it was just a “play” button.
3. Light
Incredibly simple, found on my microwave. Clearly, it means to either turn the light below it for the stovetop on or off.
4. Power
Found on my washing machine (and on tons of things), it’s clear that this is a combination of I and O found on some other switches, where I means on, because the circuit is closed, and O means off, because the circuit is open (thanks high school physics!).
5. Warning/Caution
This was found on a candle, but clearly can be used to indicate any sort of hazard. It’s a great icon/pictogram because even if we don’t understand what we’re holding (perhaps some type of chemical), seeing this icon reminds us that there is a danger associated with that product in some way or another.
6. Settings
This settings icon was found on my thermostat. The gear represents that we can get into the internal components of something and change it how we want.
The fact that we take icons for granted and see them without really seeing them is a testament to their effectiveness. We can all relate to a time when an icon in an app meant something that we thought meant something else. This confused us, made us pause. Likewise, the “Stop” button on my microwave is an upside down triangle with a circle around it. Without the labels and positional context of the physical button, I would have no idea that meant.
Icons impact us by guiding us towards doing things. They’re simple by design so that they blend in with the world around us and guide us without our knowledge. When you’re driving, you may only have a second to read a sign, so an icon gets the information to you quickly. When using a public restroom you look for the icon that looks like your gender, so you enter that restroom. And to bring it full circle, apps utilize icons not only because they save screen space, but because they also allow you to navigate through their product easily and efficiently, with the intent on keeping you as a user.
