Icons are very popular among web builders and graphic designers and can be found on many web sites. But is the use of icons really such a good idea?

Powerful imagery or imaginary power? 
Icons seem very user-friendly and simple but quite often they confuse users rather than clarify things for them. One picture may be worth a thousand words but when that picture is only a few pixels big and of a bad quality the saying doesn't really ring true. Because icons on the internet are subject to restrictions in size and use of colour, they often look very rudimentary and actually say less to users than a well-chosen word. Because there is a lack of knowledge of international symbols, users are confronted with many different icons to denote one and the same thing. A good example are the icons used for the 'News' section of a site. 
Sometimes 'News' is represented by: 
a megaphone (http://www.jcu.edu.au/newsevents), 
a typewriter (http://www.gossipcentral.com) or 
a microphone (http://www.simplot.com). 
Pretty confusing. When your site aims to reach an international audience, the problems get worse because not all cultures attribute the same symbolic value to a certain image.

Navigation 
Sites that rely solely on icons for navigational purposes prove they don't take their users very seriously. That may sound harsh but what else can you say about a site that makes users slide their mouse over the icons to find out what they mean? To make matters even worse, the symbolic value of the icons is often so poor users forget what the icons stand for almost immediately so they are forced to keep going over them with their mouse to be reminded of their meaning. Needless to say, not many users are prepared to do this.
Some sites use a combination of icons and text in their navigation but that doesn't prove to be very successful either. Whereas large and colourful icons look childish and don't do much to install confidence in users, smaller and more subdued icons are often so inconspicuous and bland they don't catch the user's eye and therefore have no added value. Take our advice: avoid icons in your navigation.

Buttons 
Although it is best to avoid them in a navigation, we don't want to dismiss icons altogether. Certain buttons can benefit from icons to draw users' attention, like 'Print', 'E-mail' and 'Add to my shopping cart'. However, even in these cases it is best to add a visible verbal hint, like ZDNet.com does with their 'E-mail', 'Print' and 'Save' buttons. A lot of sites apparently realise the icons they use aren't too clear and they try to make up for this by offering an explanation elsewhere on the page or site. An example of this can be found on Underthecork, where the 'Remove' icon is explained elsewhere on the page. Needless to say, this is not the right way to use icons.

Test your icons 
To avoid misunderstandings or unwanted associations, we advise you to test the icons you want to use on your site. Print the icons you want to use without their label, show them to a small number of people and ask them what they think the icon represents. If they think the icon represents something completely different than what you want it to convey, don't use it. It's not exactly good for your image when users associate your search button with a microphone rather than a magnifying glass, like it is the case at the site of James Cook University.

Combine visual and verbal elements
Avoid the use of icons in your navigation. If you use icons for certain buttons, make sure users interpret their symbolic value correctly and always add a clearly visible verbal hint.

Els Aerts & Karl Gilis

A more in depth version of this article has appeared in Tips & Advies Online Ondernemen, year 5, number 15 (Belgium and the Netherlands).