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Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help

blog.jim-nielsen.com

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Re: Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help

#131

Post by concinds »

wpm wrote: post #58
markbao wrote: post #29

Just right-click any file in VSCode/Cursor to see how absolutely chaotic and tedious a long menu is without icons. Now imagine that Google Docs example without icons. It’s much easier to recognize the funnel icon to make a filter, than to skim all that text.

Perhaps the solution is to split the menu up instead of giving you a long, tedious menu that is unparseable without even more visual noise of icons.

UI designers should prioritize clarity and discoverability, not minimizing "tediousness", "length" or "noise". Menus group together related functions so you can find them, and splitting them would harm that. This kind of thinking has led to a lot of terrible UI designs.

Re: Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help

#132

Post by yokljo »

qwertytyyuu wrote: post #130
pjot wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar is the save icon, though for a different reason. It conveys its function well, but one first needs to know what a floppy disk even is!

Nah, people especially younger ones associate the floppy disk with the save button

A lot of apps people use these days are cloud-first and automatically save all the time, so there's not even a save button to have a floppy icon for! The icon to say that it's synced looks like a cloud, and if you're using a web browser it'll probably have a Download button with a download icon. No floppy disks in sight.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's computer users out there that wouldn't recognise the "save icon".

RIP in peace

Re: Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help

#134

Post by heavyset_go »

arcbyte wrote: post #2

This a really interesting and persuasive read for me. I've been thinking about this topic as part of brainstorming a simple design system and I had come to the conclusion that the inconsistency of not having icons for every menu item was a big annoyance. After seeing how descriptive the icons are in older menu examples compared to the abstract blobs in newer menus, I have to admit I might be wrong. At the very least,…

> It also makes me think about the classic Save icon: the floppy disk. That was certainly descriptive at its origination, but is it still so?

It's a symbol, it could be a 7-pointed star and people would associate it with Save.

Even when you knew what a floppy disk was, why would you push that button? You haven't seen a floppy in years, don't have a floppy drive and don't want to create a floppy disk.

Re: Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help

#135

Post by thn-gap »

The real test would have been to use some software that the author uses frequently, and see if there's any decrease in speed when removing all the icons. I'm pretty sure, even when not pleasant, they work as heavy visual cues to find the item quicker.

Icons are also very useful if you're trying to use software in a language that you're learning, becoming the common language bridge.

Re: Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help

#136

Post by culebron21 »

If I remember Windows 95/98/XP correctly, these icons were in menus only if there was the same icon on the panel. This would let you see there's a shorter way to do the action.

Right now icons indeed just add clutter.

They also make you think how could the designer depict a concept.

For example, why should "Save" button look like a diskette. What if it was Jesus, like the Christ Redeemer statue. That actually could be a funny game, like in the post, to invent icons.

Re: Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help

#138

Post by scragz »

qwertytyyuu wrote: post #130
pjot wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar is the save icon, though for a different reason. It conveys its function well, but one first needs to know what a floppy disk even is!

Nah, people especially younger ones associate the floppy disk with the save button

they think it's a soda vending machine

Re: Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help

#139

Post by whstl »

People at Apple is gonna read this and they will do a man-month’s worth of meetings but the designer and PM will never agree in whether to remove some or add more, the developers are too busy adding icons to other random places to get a promotion and the QA is filling about missing icons after finally getting around to check Tahoe.

People are saying they miss Steve Jobs but they probably just miss the product having actual direction.

Re: Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help

#140

Post by alextingle »

Timwi wrote: post #89

> Hey, unless you can articulate a really good reason to add this, maybe our default posture should be no icons in menus? Challenge accepted. If a user (esp. one whose cognition generally prefers visual media) uses a menu item frequently, they can remember its icon and that makes it easier to find in the future. (Doesn't apply to me personally though because I'll instead remember the underlined letter and press it ne…

Flat, monochrome icons might look nice, but they are only useful if used sparingly.

If you're going to use many icons, then they need to be visually distinctive. That means ditching the flat designs, and embracing colour again.

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