An image or pictogram used instead of or supplemental to textual information. Icon requests are off topic; please keep questions related to their use rather than asking what a good icon to represent a certain item/concept would be.

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2
votes
2answers
43 views

Clarifying unfamiliar tools in a toolbox

If you use Adobe Photoshop to edit your images, there's this toolbox, from which you can select the tool you want to use. I'm designing a similar program than manipulates blueprints instead of ...
2
votes
2answers
79 views

Using icons as checkboxes?

How unusable is it to use icons as checkboxes? It's a cool concept when it is implemented, however I am worried that it is not obvious that the icon is clickable. What are people's opinions about a) ...
0
votes
3answers
98 views

Are there any commonly used icons that don't internationalize well? [closed]

I am a UX designer for a software company, and our product has been translated for the following: French German Italian Spanish Romanian Japanese Chinese Are there any icons that are commonly used ...
2
votes
4answers
219 views

“This is Old” state icon [closed]

There are entities that have a state. The states until now are: New (plus) Valid (check) Canceled (X) And now I'm trying to introduce the "this is Old" state. How can I easily tell this to the ...
-5
votes
0answers
29 views

How do I edit these icons with Gimp? [closed]

I'm a developer, not a designer, but I have spent some time on Gimp and generally find my way around it. I have come across a great, free set of icons from brankic, at http://brankic1979.com/icons/. ...
0
votes
0answers
38 views

Icons for “Resources” or “Assets” and “Services” [closed]

I've been trying to brainstorm on this and look around but haven't come up with anything great yet. I need two icons. One that indicates "resources" or "assets" and another for "services". The ...
-3
votes
0answers
48 views

Online CRM UX: Global Icons for Leads, Opportunities, Quotes - Global Sales Team Recognition [closed]

Looking for a repository or thoughts on icons used in the UI to represent the following CRM Sales activities: Leads, Opportunities, and Quotes (as in configuring an opportunity to suit a customer). ...
22
votes
6answers
1k views

red checkmark vs. a red “X”

I am currently designing a panel in my business application that shows a table of data to a user. The data in the table is the company's percentage (this is equated by many different values), whether ...
-2
votes
0answers
56 views

What should a System Icon look like? [closed]

I work for an enterprise software as the lead designer and am at a loss to find a good system icon ... the icon will be placed at every message/notification which is sent by the "system" eg. some one ...
4
votes
4answers
160 views

Battery - what percentage range to use for each color?

I need to display battery with 3 colors: green, orange (or yellow?) and red. This device's battery (like iPad, iPhone etc..) with a battery life of up to two days. What percentage range to use for ...
9
votes
3answers
715 views

Are 3D icons better than 2D?

I've seen an increase of 3D icons in the recent past. I am not convinced they are better. Instead they may actually be worse because space is taken up by the projection. Is there any evidence as to ...
6
votes
3answers
160 views

On log in form, what should a password unmask button look like and say?

On the log in form, I want to give users the option to unmask the password field so they can see what they type. The phrase "unmask password" is too technical and its purpose may not be apparent to ...
1
vote
1answer
42 views

Is there any good idiom for 'real time' or 'live' data? [duplicate]

The floppy disk is a good idiom for 'save', is there any good one for 'real time' or 'live' data? I haven't found much on the interweb: 'fast text', this is meant for IM A LOT of clocks in ...
-1
votes
0answers
50 views

Opensource Icons for my app? [closed]

I'm working on an opensource project in C# which is basically a small desktop application in WinForms. What I need is a set of icons/images to add to the UI elements such as toolbars and command ...
4
votes
3answers
236 views

What unicode symbol should I use for EDIT?

I'm trying to keep a very light payload on a wordpress plugin I'm writing. Users will be able to: add - + refresh - ⟳ edit I'm thinking of using the pencil glyph: ✎, but I'm not sure about it. ...
23
votes
7answers
1k views

Help menu - “?” or “Help”?

It is a very simple question, but it has been bothering me for quite some time: when creating an application, should the help menu (in the menu bar) be called "?" or "Help"? I can see a few ...
1
vote
1answer
180 views

What's an in between for a big red X and a big green check mark? [closed]

I'm trying to find ideas for a good, iconic, or not so iconic but still works, in between of a big red X and a green check mark. The context is in a feedback popup to a short 3 - 5 question quiz that ...
37
votes
7answers
928 views

How should you show that an accordion is expanded?

When you have an accordion, you need some way of showing the current state is expanded. There are a number of different ways of handling this, and each is used by a number of respected websites and ...
9
votes
1answer
96 views

Marking contact as primary?

Currently in the application that I am designing, we are displaying just a short amount of contact information, which means that if the contact has 4 different numbers (i.e. mobile,home,work,fax), ...
2
votes
5answers
218 views

What is a sheet of UX elements called?

The Microsoft Ribbon is a like a tabbed "sheet" of UX icons. It's basically an iconified, horizontal version of an always-open menu. Is there a general name for a group of UX buttons or icons, that ...
-2
votes
1answer
59 views

Appropriate Icon for a Subscribe or Subscription [closed]

What would be an appropriate Icon that could be used for Subscribe or Subscription. A subscription meaning; where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service.
0
votes
2answers
53 views

How should I denote that one price has been replaced with different one?

I'm working on some retail software, for trade use. It lists a catalogue of items and the prices that the retailer should be selling them for. Occasionally, however, the retail price in the system ...
5
votes
3answers
93 views

How would you distinguish “Sets” from “Folders” in a collection of tiles?

I'm displaying both Sets (which contain Cards) and Folders (which contain Sets) on the same page. Ideally they'll both be tiles. I'm not sure how to make it easy for the user to tell the difference ...
5
votes
5answers
342 views

Best way to display plus/minus or pros/cons short sentences

I have information in short sentences (bullet list) and each bullet could be pros/cons or plus/minus toward a product. What is the best way to display it nicely? For example: + Price is cheap + ...
8
votes
2answers
117 views

What design principles and/or guidelines we should use for vote-up/vote-down and counters?

Several times I have clicked the icons next to the counters totals (vote-up/vote-down) on YouTube while trying to vote up or like a video. What are the design guidelines and/or principles for placing ...
2
votes
1answer
81 views

What is the use of a play icon with line next to it

We got a few general music player icons for playing and manipulating playlists. > = play tune >> = hold to move backwards in tune (or skip to next tune) << = hold to move forward in ...
5
votes
4answers
250 views

Is is better to place text above or below icons?

This UX.SE question discusses the use of text above vs. below images & videos, and in general the answers say below. I'm thinking that it must be different with icons, since their purpose is ...
1
vote
4answers
78 views

Is it acceptable to implement abbreviated elements and will users know what they mean?

More websites are including icons and visual elements over text allowing for more space and cleaner design. Elements like social icons (FB, Twitter), views, likes, favorite, comments, etc don't ...
6
votes
5answers
554 views

Why are icons on mobile phone menu screens square or rectangular but not circular?

If you take a look at the app page of any mobile OS, for example iOS, Android, Ubuntu, Win8, BADA, etc., they all have square icons, either with rounded corner or sharp corners (shown in the first ...
1
vote
0answers
43 views

Should Social Media Icons Hold Present Color Value? [duplicate]

When designing a website should social media icons keep their established color value or can they be restyled to associate with your website's theme? Can changing the icon colors impact the user? ...
12
votes
6answers
509 views

Show/Hide Password Icon - Eye/ Closed Eye? Is the “Eye” icon offensive to any cultures?

I am on a project where we are implementing show/hide password functionality, and after significant research I discovered the 'Open Eye'/ 'Closed Eye' to be fairly standard. Once this was implemented ...
-2
votes
1answer
57 views

Which icon to use for location button? [closed]

We're a supermarket chain with more than 500 stores. The find stores function in our smartphone app (Android/iPhone) should have a button for finding stores near the user's current location. The ...
-1
votes
3answers
122 views

Any ideas for a 'Today' icon? [closed]

I'm working on an app at the moment. I'm trying to replace the text with icons to allow easier transition to international markets. One icon I'm struggling with is a 'today'. I've thought about a ...
5
votes
2answers
134 views

Icons and colors on menus

I wonder when (if at all) it is appropriate to use icons next to menu entries (drop down menus, right click contextual menus etc). I have noticed that pretty much all of the menus I have seen only ...
1
vote
4answers
268 views

Is there a reason to use this icon with a confirmation message?

This is the message Sharepoint 2010 gives as a confirmation message for requesting access to a particular site you do not have access to. I am quite confused by the icon - to me this looks like a ...
188
votes
16answers
8k views

What explains the current shift from glossy UIs to matte UIs?

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in the user interfaces of many famous applications, they're moving away from the glossy complex to a more dull and bare minimum design. Why the sudden change? ...
-1
votes
3answers
120 views

“Out of stock” and “In Stock Again” indication [closed]

I've been asked to design something to indicate when an item is "out of stock" and "in stock again" and I really don't want to use "cross" and "tick"... Do you guys have any ideas? A quick note: ...
3
votes
2answers
154 views

What happened to the animated taskbar icons?

I know that there are good reasons to abandon animated icons in a taskbar UI-wise. But good reasons never kept people from doing stupid stuff: So why are there no animated taskbar icons at all ...
0
votes
0answers
45 views

Places Icons similar like Yelp [closed]

Hi i am wondering where can i find places icons similar like this: These are places icons such as local business, shopping, food and etc. I am looking for commercial or free versions. Thanks
6
votes
3answers
57 views

How do I mark a package download if the individual items (within the package) are listed beside it?

We are having a dilemma and I thought to ask the experts. We offer video, xml and package (< video plus XML) downloads. If the user downloads the video, a green marker appears showing that it has ...
3
votes
2answers
108 views

What should a toggle switch do when using a multi-select?

When an item in a list has one of two possible states, how should the toggle switch behave when items have been selected that have different states? Neither action is dangerous, but it may act on ...
2
votes
3answers
173 views

Small icon: incoming vs outgoing

Up to now we use the following ascii art to show the difference in our mail/ticket system: --> means "incoming" <-- means "outgoing" But some users complain, that it is not immediately clear ...
1
vote
1answer
65 views

iOS 'Append' Symbol/Icon [closed]

I am working on a calculator app for iOS. I would like to know what an acceptable 'Append' symbol / Icon would be - would it be a downward pointing arrow? A curved arrow? Anything helps, Erway ...
4
votes
4answers
213 views

User navigation icons or text based

I am working on a web based hosted CRM personal project which I will release to public ones it is done. My goal is to create a CRM with absolutely zero to none learning or training requirement. To do ...
4
votes
2answers
93 views

'Liking' Sensitive Events on Social Media: Contextual Icons and Words for Approval/Agreement

Prompted by recent events. The use of a Like icon (whether thumbs up or otherwise) is fine on social media for lots of things, but certain subjects and events should not be "liked" or use such a ...
3
votes
2answers
105 views

position of lens icon in auto suggest field

Can some one suggest which is the best place for keeping lens icon for auto suggest/ auto complete field from usability point of view? I have seen most of the sites keeping it on the right side of the ...
4
votes
2answers
81 views

Rearranging icons by most recently used

I am looking for some studies that examine how users perceive controls (e.g. navigational icons) that are rearranged based on most recently used. Also it would be interesting to see how rearranging ...
14
votes
4answers
935 views

How to best indicate navigation menu on mobile

What's the best way to indicate the navigation menu on mobile? I see this three-bar icon being used a lot but do users really understand what it means? Wouldn't a button simply saying "Navigation" ...
5
votes
1answer
139 views

Is there a widely-understood visual metaphor for privacy?

On our profile page, we're giving users choices among three privacy settings for each field. The checkbox choices will not appear until a user highlights a particular field, but we do want to convey ...
5
votes
4answers
211 views

Is there any value in using “irrelevant” icons

I'm currently wireframing/"UXing" and doing the front-end dev work on the rebuild of a reasonably big intranet app with lots of data in various sections. To make things easier for the users to pick ...

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