[jkoberg]

"tiny little cute icons" is already a big problem in UX. Every designer should be testing the success rates of "little icons" against textual labels. If you have to have an animated tooltip on hover that says what the icon does, it's a big red flag.

Don't cargo-cult.

[kevincox]

I agree. If you have one or two very obvious icons it can work. (Although always include a tooltip as well.) However I often see a toolbar full of similar looking icons and it is so hard to find what I am looking for. (I'm looking at you GMail)

[abiogenesis]

Fortunately it is possible to switch to text-only buttons in Gmail.

[lucasmullens]

I assume partly that designers do that since textual labels require translation, but icons generally don't. What fits perfectly in English often doesn't fit in German.

[webmaven]

> I assume partly that designers do that since textual labels require translation, but icons generally don't. What fits perfectly in English often doesn't fit in German.

Except that icons need tooltips, which would require translation anyway.

[tbe]

You missed the second sentance. The length of the translated string is less critical for a tooltip compared to a toolbar filled with buttons.

Imagine when an app is to be translated to 20 languages. Only the original language had the luxery of having a voice in how many buttons fit on the toolbar.