An Article from the Web~ By:Iconshock Professional Icons

Icons are very important to the user-interface. People want to use an application's features to the maximum, and don't like to it when they can't find how to complete a specific task. This is why developers should always create shortcuts to the main tasks that can be accomplished using their application. These shortcut items must catch the user's attention, so adding icons will do the trick in most of the cases. The icons must be related to that certain task, so, for example, a disk icon would be a great visual enhancement for a "Save" button, as a printer icon would fit perfectly inside a "Print" button. A good set of icons in the interface will greatly improve the communication between the user and the application. Icons are colorful and, in most cases, larger than the description text of the application feature they relate to; this way, they are a lot easier to be spotted.


Most of today's applications use icons, even though pretty much all developers don't bother to implement custom designed icons into their applications. Actually, settling with the operating system's default stock icons is not such a bad thing as some people might think. Computer users might sometimes have some problems adapting to new applications, especially if they have different interfaces than the applications already installed on the users' computers. What happens if you want to save and you're looking for a disk icon, but you can't find it because the developer decided to use a star icon? If so, there will be a poor communication between the user and the application, because the interface's icons are different from the ones the user is used to. Application developers should not fall into this trap just because they like some other icons and they don't want to use the same old default system icons, because it would do more bad than good. The default system icons are preferred because most applications use them, so users will learn to use your application a lot faster. The functions and commands will be easier to understand, because users will be able to faster identify the iconic symbols.