Should I use only one icon for a key in a keyboard?

Question

I have the following Android custom keyboard:

The top 4 buttons are tabs

The middle 9 buttons are various keys that you can press for the keyboard to automatically generate a paragraph of text.

The bottom two buttons are a delete all text button and the "Done" button which goes back to the normal keyboard.

I am wondering, since the only icon I use in the keyboard is on the delete button, should I just replace that icon with the text: "Delete All Text" to keep it more consistent with the rest of the design, or should I keep it as is?

Answer 1

Additionally, from a UX/UI perspective, don't use a close symbol for delete. It's generally accepted in users minds that the circle X is for closing something like a pop up. The most common symbol comes from your phone itself that looks like this: Delete Symbol.

Use a check mark for Done and you will have a good balance for that section that allows common icon usage in both sections. If you feel the need, you can put the text as smaller under the icon to emphasize it's usage but most people will be find with just the symbols.

Answer 2

First of all, you should change the visual aspect of these buttons so that they don't all look like they will perform the same way.

Make sure that the tabs as obviously tabs, that they buttons below that are obviously buttons and that they "done" and "delete" button obviously will complete some sort of interaction. Right now everything looks the same, which will give users the feeling that they will give the same interaction or feedback to the user. For more information about, I suggest looking into the Gestalt principle.

Then onto the actual question: You've got two options, you either both give them text, or you both give them an icon. I'd say giving then an icon combined with a color (an "x" & and red color for "delete", and a ">" & a green color for "done" for instance) would work perfectly in this case.