In todays lecture we looked at icons. Icons are very important in the UX and UI world. Icons are cool because they are universal, they are not limited to language, and a good icon should be understandable by anyone. They come in different forms, some more detailed, and some very simple and basic. The human brain loves icons as it is more receptive to visuals than text. At the root of icons is trying to convey information in the smallest way possible. Notably, icons with the least amount of elements possible are usually the most effective as they are not cluttered and confusing.
One of the most anticipated and excellent set of icons are the ones that the Olympics release every four years that will be used in their games to represent each sport. Since the Olympic games have been going on for many years, this means that there has been lots of different icon sets that they have designed. Here are some of my favourites and as you can see, they do a fantastic job of conveying each sport, and they are as simple as possible. Here are the icon sets for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and 2020, and even though they are over 60 years apart, they still have the same basic principles and both keep it as simple as possible.
Tokyo 1964
Tokyo 2020
Icon sets are used frequently in UX and UI design. It is very important that icons are consistent with each other, meaning that they all feature the same style throughout. This makes the UI look more consistent and visually appealing, and keeps it from getting confusing. Each icon should be the same in whether they are minimalistic or detailed, the line weight, the size of them, and the colour scheme. Icons main focus should be functional so it is important to prioritise this over anything else. Here are a few good examples of a consistent icon set where the style is the same throughout.
There are different styles of icons that are frequently used in UX and UI. The simplest type is outline, or line, where the icon is just an outline with little of it filled in. This is the most common icon today and it is very popular because they are easy to understand and also look good. The next type of icon is glyph, when the icon is filled in with one colour. Similar to outline, they are popular for the same reason in that they are simple and consistent. Another style is hand-drawn, where the icons are doodled and give a more personal feel to an icon. They are more fun and creative and can create an emotional connection to people. The last style is skeuomorphic, which is the most realistic style. They have features that the other styles don’t, such as shadows and textures.
Outline
Glyph
Hand-drawn
Skeuomorphic
This book was given to us to read and learn in more depth about icons. It especially emphasised the importance of icons being cohesive with each other, meaning that they are similar enough to not look out of place, and that they should all work together to guide the user around the interface. This book stressed the importance of choosing your icon style before you start designing, this way you can tailor your icons around that style. Another takeaway from this book was the importance of sketching before you jump into software. This is because sketching allows your ideas to develop, instead of just using the first idea that comes into your mind and sticking with it. This is something that I need to consider more, as I like to jump straight to software when I should spend more time sketching my ideas first. Overall this book was very useful and insightful for learning more about the design process of icons.
This article was about how designers today aren’t focused on the correct goal when creating their designs. It talks about how Dribbble, which is a website where designers share their work, has influenced designers to only try and make their designs look good, and not be functional, helping solve problems and designing products that don’t just look good but actually make peoples lives easier and more conventional. It emphasised how designers should always be reminding themselves what the business’s mission and vision is, and that this should have a key part in their designs. This article opened my eyes to this as this is a big mistake that is very easy to do.
Todays class and these articles and books have been very fun to learn about, especially the design of icons and icon sets. I never realised how much thought goes into a basic icon set, but now that I have learnt about it, I now know the process of creating icons that are consistent and cohesive. This class will be very useful for creating my music app.