Reposting a Tweet by Matt Wilcox

2019-02-03

Reposted:

Designers: icons for actions is A BAD IDEA. Just had to help my mum write an email on a tablet after years of using the Gmail app and thinking it was reading only. The fucking pencil icon means *nothing* and the paper aeroplane doesn’t mean “send” either. Use. Words. On. Buttons.

— Matt Wilcox 2019-02-02

I still remember working on a Nokia project from a good ten years ago, where “for convenience of internationalisation” all action buttons were replaced with icons only. What a fight it was to convince the stakeholders it was a bad idea (we were just an agency, and when this battle was eventually won, it apparently was mostly based on numbers, not common sense).

Designers assuming that their icons – no matter how used they themselves are to them from being on their devices 24/7 – are uniquely understood really should take this story of Matt Wilcox’ mum to their hearts. She didn’t even realize Gmail was not read only! Putting text under icons, too, is inclusive design.

I'm Sebastian, Sociologist and Interaction Designer. This journal is mostly about bringing together social science and design for inclusive, privacy-focused, and sustainable "human-first" digital strategies. I also tend to a "digital garden" with carefully curated resources.

My occasionally sent email newsletter has all of the above, and there is of course also an RSS feed or my Mastodon/Fediverse profile.

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