The game of Icon Design and the User Experience

Interfaces help you communicate and in getting your things done. The web or mobile user interface is a means to reach the end and as a designer, your job is to create easy and useful interfaces.

Icons are the indispensable assets as they convey the actual meaning without using words. A good interface allows users to learn how the interface works. Even just by studying the visuals and interacting, users must be able to figure out the function of every tiny interface component.

In this article, I will walk you through different ways of icon design for improving the quality of UX on a website.

 

Improved Website Navigation

Icons help the users navigate via a website based on the visuals alone. Those icons are called the best that most of the people recognize. But, you can also design icons for links having label text for a clearer usability. It is important to include the text labels for links as well. Pure icons for navigation hardly works and are not definitely the best part of User Experience.

 

Icon Design to Encourage Behavior

Navigation can be far beyond the top level navigation or menu bar. It can also have links within the body of the page or in the sidebar that assist users to navigate through a website.

Icons can also be employed for in-body links if they exist apart. For an example, you can use the different colors for the navigation button on your websites such as back and forward button.
One crucial in-page navigation item is the Call to Action button(CTA). Icons might also work very well for CTAs that serve a specific purpose on any website.

Must Read: All you Need to Know About Iconography

Form Description

Every website contains some type of forms. Be it an e-mail signup form or an account login form, it is often a part of the website.

Icons can be paired with these forms to impart trust and encourage user actions. These can really be powerful.

Icons describe surrounding content. And since visuals are easier to interpret as compared to words, it makes a real sense to make these icons clear as well as easy to be spotted at a glance.

Moreover, designers can also use icons to their form fields. This works pretty well if the form contains more than 3-4 inputs and the user needs to fill up all the form fields.

 

Features and Pointers

Most of the new startups or small businesses or even web app has a series of features and is so powerful to get the users on the site. You can also list out the features of your projects but that’ll usually just bore the audience.

Instead, try adding icon design to explain all the features and general behaviors. Visuals are also easier to understand and therefore very engaging.