3.5/5

Icon Handbook - John Hicks, https://hicks.design/shop/the-icon-handbook

We were told we have to read this Icon Handbook so over a week I read it, here is each chapter summarised

The book is a guide that covers the art and science that is icon design, it is a reference and practical guide that would help someone to design an icon

It has 7 chapters which focus on different aspects of iconography

1. “A Potted History of Icons” covers the history of icons from hieroglyphics to Icons made for a digital user face like the Macintosh. the chapter went through how important the icons have become to support the user experience. I loved reading through more history about the Macintosh icons, I previously did a presentation about the digital age of UI for design history and I felt that it would’ve helped the presentation by using the interview from Susan Kare in the book. this was my favourite question that was asked: “You also designed the Apple Command icon that is now an accepted convention. How did you come up with a symbol for such an abstract concept? “I leafed through a book of symbols, and came across a similar cloverleaf, which was identified as an image used on signs in Swedish campgrounds to mean ‘interesting feature’. This seemed appropriate, and would lend itself to being recreated in a limited number of pixels, plus fit well on a squarish key cap. Years later, I learned that it is meant to be a castle, seen from above.” I just think this is interesting as Icon’s meaning can change overtime, this was originally meant to be an overhead of a castle but now it is Apple’s symbol for the Command function

1. “How We Use Icons” this chapter explores the roles that icons play, it goes further than just a decorative asset rather focusing on more functional roles such as helping navigate the user whether that would be a video player or a tool bar, providing feedback, for example putting an red X beside a box to tell the user that the password they’ve wrote is wrong, and help show a users status or what the status of something is. we see in the book they show 5 icons to represent unsaved, publish, pending uploading and Finished. It also goes through how to convey emotion through the use of emojis, so for example a smiling emoji means happy where as a emo emoji would represent sadness

2. “Favicons” (also called shortcut icons) is about well favicons which are the small icons you would see in your search bar to represent the logo of a website, the chapter itself goes through techniques on how to make the Favicon legible and also sharp at smaller sizes If you were to create a favicon for every possible use, the sizes you would need to create are: • 16px: For general use in all browsers, • 24px: Toolbar favicon in Internet Explorer 9 • 32px: New tab page in Internet Explorer • 57px: Standard iOS home screen • 72px: iPad home screen icon • 96px: Favicon used by the GoogleTV platform • 114px: iPhone 4+ home screen icon (twice the standard size for the retina display) • 128px: Chrome Web Store • 256x160px: Opera Speed Dial Please keep in mind this book is outdated but the sizes would be roughly the same maybe just slightly bigger

3. “The Metaphor” talks about metaphors for icons, it talks about how important it is when choosing what is the visual of the icon and how does that relate to the function of the icon, the chapter references the Noun project which we were told about in the week 2 lecture. I found it humourous when looking at an example of how Icons can connote different meanings, here are some symbols for a hand dryer and below the different meanings it can convey

   

   This helps show how careful we have to be when looking at Icons as someone may see hands being warmed or someone receiving bacon.

4. “Drawing Icons” shows a step by step guide of how the icon drawing process is done, it covers from simple icons like an arrow to more complex icons like a coloured folder, it talks about challenges that you will face during design and rules for drawing like colour contrast and sizing. There was also a exercise on drawing Icons as well, they gave me step by step instructions on how to design a bookmark so I did it. I made it in red because I can

1. “Icon Formats and Deployment” talks about the different formats and methods used to upload and “deploy” icons across different media with a focus on websites, the chapter also discusses how these decisions can influence the final product. In summary this what to take from this chapter, For huge sized websites or large amounts of Icons use sprites. again this book is outdated and technology has advanced and cloud storage and regular storage, ram anything that can be stored has improved significantly
2. And finally “Application Icons” the handbook concludes with insights in designing application icons which are highly realistic and how they require a deeper understanding of how the aesthetic appeal to the user and how it is functional to the user. Essentially how can we create something that looks good and is easy to understand. Think about some of the UI for the MacOS either currently or back in the 2010s. The Icons were very detailed and helped the user know what they were clicking on but as well I remember when I was a kid I had no idea what the search engine was for Mac until I randomly clicked a compass called safari, How am I the user to know what safari is? This is clearly meant to be a compass app, I understand now how it can mean searching through the safari that is web but to new users this can be hard to get.

In conclusion, Jon Hicks has wrote a great handbook which is now sadly outdated, but by incorporating interviews with well known icon designers it helps me the reader see different perspectives and insights into the process of icon design as well as icon meanings, see the hand drying icons for example. I love the examples it gave which helped me understand and get inspiration for designing logos. I feel now it has helped me to understand Icons and logos and know what makes a great one and a bad one. My complaint which is no fault to Jon himself is that it is outdated, The content and the words haven’t been outdated but the actual Icons have and the way things are done now have changed so that is a gripe I have. but overall a good read.