[gcau]

This is advice many modern designers need to know - I don't like seeing an icon and having no idea what it does without clicking it, and having to guess what the icon might mean, where a label could easily fit, or replace the icon, and be a vastly better UX, but "looking good" is more important to most designers.

[thfuran]

>I don't like seeing an icon and having no idea what it does without clicking it

And that's assuming you're lucky enough to be using a UI that clearly marks what's interactible instead of being maximally flat.

[nemomarx]

I always assumed it was to avoid translation work?

[zerocrates]

I've seen some contexts where this is what's happening. IKEA instructions would be one, or I've also seen it in some board games, where things like cards will use icons so only the instruction book needs to be translated.

But in UIs you usually have to have some text equivalent somewhere, on hover or long-press or in a menu or just as text for screenreader users, so you don't generally get to avoid translation even if you take visible labels away.