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by layer8 1148 days ago
I wonder how many ordinary users have any notion of what the “tune” icon [0] is supposed to indicate.

[0] https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg...

2 comments

It looks odd in isolation but I was surprised how natural it looks in the bar.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh...

This settings/configure/adjust icon seems to be in the middle of a transition between abstract and universal. Something like a magnifying glass didn't need any transition period because humans already associate it with "searching" from fiction. Other icons required reinforcement to learn (e.g. the share icon - or, even more well learned, the pause icon). One of the downsides of the modern hyper-focus on metrics in UI is that it dictates that iconography already be intuitive. Sometimes we need to ignore this rule in order to teach users a new icon, which then helps us improve interfaces by communicating more without words.