The Challenge of Understanding Icons
Icons are very peculiar images. They are both pictorial and functional. An icon is literally a picture, e.g., of a magnifying glass, and at the same time it represents a function, i.e., the query in a search. So, one and the same image is meant both to attract attention to itself and to facilitate action. In addition, icons live in a world surrounded by other icons and images with which they share meaning and properties. Users give meaning to icons as they put together information from various contexts, physical and virtual.
Given all this complexity, it is always a great challenge to create truly effective icons.
We felt we needed to better understand how people make sense of icons. We began our inquiry with icons in Launchpad and adapted the methodology developed by Dessus and Peraya (Cognitive Modelling of Icon Comprehension). Their approach is multi-pronged: 1) understand how meanings are conveyed by certain icons, and 2) uncover the implicit rules that guide the interpretation of icons. Our overall aim is to develop a design language specifically for Ubuntu icons.
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