[joadha]

Please stop with the icon menu bars. It is 2021, and people are still doing this. Why. Just stop. Arrrgh.

Anyway, I absolutely love this idea! I signed up and am poking around now. I think I already like this more than Benzinga, Stocktwits, SeekingAlpha, you-name-it.

[lgas]

As phrased your suggestion to stop using icon menu bars is unhelpful. What should we be using instead and why?

[jacobsenscott]

Text. You can scan it in an instant. It takes orders of magnitude longer to hover over each icon, wait for the tooltip, repeat for the more obscure ones.

[heyheyhey]

I prefer the icon menu bars with text underneath the icons. iOS Apps use this a lot: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...

[lgas]

FWIW the icons do have text labels and even descriptions when you hover over them.

[GloriousKoji]

I'm hovering with my finger on my phone and I don't see text labels. /s

[rabuse]

How is this sarcastic? I hate when info like that isn't accessible on mobile devices.

[joadha]

Sorry I wasn't more helpful. See Jacob's reply. Keep doing what you are doing! No discouragement was intended.

[latenightcoding]

aren't icon menu bars a somewhat recent trend (last decade), I remember text menu bars were more popular back in the day and then boostrap came along.

[xpe]

Hello joadha, your first paragraph comes across as ranty and even arrogant (i.e. implying you are the authority on UX choices). You offer no valid support for your argument.

[dt3ft]

I perceived it that way as well, but I have to partly agree.

Here's my reasoning: if someone just invented a new icon (created it from scratch and gave it a meaning), they should be aware that majority of their users will not understand the meaning of the icon, at least not at first.

Historical icons, such as a floppy disk or a cogwheel, are fair game. Creating new icons is dangerous territory, especially if you are hoping for your users to focus on the content, rather than getting familiar with your UI.

What do you think the following two icons (taken from utradea example) represent:

* A lightbulb with a dollar sign

* A deck of cards

Having to hover (which may or may not work on mobile), and actually clicking the icons and observing what happens, is not a good recipe for good UX. To read more about actual authority on UX, I recommend reading about Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles[1] for interaction design.

[1] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

[stuartjm5]

Thanks for providing a bit of history and principles for UX design. It's a valid point, we wanted to come up with something that was unique and intuitive with our icons but it makes sense that people have different perceptions or associated with icons. We will likely move to standard icons or make it clear with text what the button/menu item is.

[joadha]

Hello xpe, I'm rather glad that it does.

I'm continually triggered by this horrible pattern that frustrates me and wastes my time.

In turn, I think it is arrogant of UI designers to assume that everybody will automatically understand what their icons mean, and that it's worth my time to repeatedly hover over them to get to things they should want me to find.

[nvr219]

I think icon menu bars are great