Inside Macintosh: Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines / Part 2 - The Interface Elements: Chapter 8 - Icons

Why Icons Work

Icons work effectively in the Macintosh interface as representations of computer entities for several reasons. People often recognize pictures of things and understand them more quickly than they do verbal representations of the same things. For example, studies have shown that traffic signs that have symbols are more recognizable from a distance than signs that have only words. Figure 8-2 shows several examples of traffic symbols.

Figure 8-2 Examples of common traffic symbols

Symbols cross cultural and language barriers better than words do. Figure 8-3 shows examples of symbols that are used internationally. For example, at the Olympics pictures communicate ideas such as the locations of various events. People from around the globe must recognize the meanings of the signs in order to make their way to events, facilities, and services.

Figure 8-3 Examples of commonly-used international symbols

Symbols also take up less space than words that describe the same concept would. Imagine having to include the words written in many different languages on the signs. You can see that it's much easier in some cases to use graphics to represent concepts.

In the computer realm, it's generally easier to recognize symbols across systems than it is to remember keyboard commands. For example, a mailbox, even if it is of a different kind, is still recognizable as a mailbox. People identify a mailbox with sending and receiving communication. It's much harder for a user to remember that one system uses the command Control-M for mail, another system uses Control-P for post, and a third system uses Control-S for send.

Figure 8-4 shows two examples of mailbox icons and their equivalent keyboard commands.

Figure 8-4 Symbols are easier to understand than keyboard commands

Icons provide direct access to items in the interface. People can see a folder, open it, and see its contents, or they can organize their desktop simply by grouping icons, rather than having to remember a lot of filenames and using lists to keep track of their files. Thus using icons contributes to the clarity and aesthetic integrity of the interface. Figure 8-5 shows a desktop with icon groupings.

Figure 8-5 Grouping icons on the desktop