To Jared's point, >Keep in mind that there's a lot more work to make a high-quality icon than to make high-quality labels.
I certainly agree that is most often the case, but there cases where it's easier to convey a concept symbolically. One specific personal experience... I worked on an application where one needed to specify how to utilize two sets data, All of A and all of B combined Only the intersection of A and B Exclude the intersection of A and B This was difficult to communicate succinctly in text, but Venn diagram style icons showing the include/exclude intersection concept were 1) less contentious for the product team to agree upon than any of the proposed wordings and 2) proved extremely effective with our users. The following is excellent advice that speaks directly to the sited example, >So, if it takes the team a long time to decide on an icon, chances are it won't be a great icon for users. In the include/exclude data example, agreement in the team was easy, and in testing users understood the icons immediately - apparently further confirmation of Hersch's findings. I would never argue creating effective icons and labels is simple, so using both will inevitably mean more effort to 'get it right.' But I wouldn't go so far as to say that the text only path always requires less work to get a point across. As for accommodating the visually impaired, there are alternatives such as alt & title attributes in browser based applications, and other options with installed apps. Designers and developers should be encouraged to be conscious of accessibility issues and strive to address them without creating less compelling & innovative products in the process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40534 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
