If you see this sign on any of the parking spaces, what do you understand?
Without using any text or elaborate explanations, you understand that It means no parking.
Icons do the same job, in a much more creative way, when incorporated into your web designs. Icons are easy-to-understand symbols that serve as paragraph breaks and make your page more visually interesting. Icons reduce your effort of writing text and help users process information effectively, providing an animated allure to your web designs. Make sure you use icons that complement the content rather than distract from it. The use of icons enriches even the smallest content and enables effective communication without the use of words.
Significance of Icons in Web Designs
Icons are symbols or logo-like animated pictures that help the user understand basic things, break the text on your web designs, and eliminate the use of too many words.
According to a study, 65% of people are visual learners and comprehend visual content bette65%r than text.
Here are some ways icons can beneficially be used on your web pages:
Icons Highlight and Support Your Content
Icons help users identify the content and get the gist of the message. It makes it easier for viewers to process information. Icons can attract attention by highlighting content and enhancing readability. Instead of using the usual bullets, you can use attractive icons that are highly productive for readability
Icons Describe Functions
Using excessive text to explain a function can distract the readers. They may tend to lose focus, and eventually, they will skip the entire message. It is recommended to add creative icons to describe the functions and features of something. Use icons to reinforce the message with visual explanations as humans relate symbols to better understand concepts
Icons Look Attractive and Can Give a Hype to Your Web Designs
Visuals speak louder than words. Imagine reading a news webpage with text and reading another page with icons, symbols, animations, and logos. Which page looks more attractive and readable?
It has been observed that information with images has a 650% better engagement than text-oriented information. Therefore, it is substantial to include icons or other visual elements in your design.
Icons Help Streamline Navigation
Icons can help distinguish elements and visually explain concepts. Imagine going to a website that has instructions like click here (with an arrow sign), or to register services (look here – with an icon).
Another example is a restaurant that uses different icons for different purposes like – menu, place order, location, etc. It makes it easier for users to click on the service using the icons and get the service they want.
Symbols Tell Stories
Icons have the power to visually isolate and symbolize the elements. Let us look at this example. A very simple way to tell the viewers which option to pick, without even having to read the context.
Icons Are Helpful When Filling Out Forms
Web forms with icons can help users, can attract potential customers, and build a warm relationship with them. Instead of making the form complicated using words, use icons and help your visitors fill the forms easily and engage with your brand in a better way
Which Icons Are Considered the Best for Web Design?
There are no rules for designing icons for your web pages. If you hire UI developers who have the experience and the expertise in icon creation, they will help in creating high-end, well-designed icons, that are user-friendly and can highlight information. Make sure your designers maintain consistency among all the icons designed for your page and are symmetrical in size to give a more professional look. Avoid details and excessive styling in your icons and simply stick to the key elements. A good and functional icon represents your brand and fits in your context perfectly with simple shapes to get your message across.
How Can Icons Confuse Your Website Visitors?
Not everyone is well-versed in icons. If a layman sees an icon with a house built on it, it’s simple that it depicts a home, but an icon with a magnifying glass or an icon with two arrows can confuse the users. Avoid using complicated icons and stick to the ones that users can easily comprehend. The use of an excessive amount of metaphors through icons may not be useful to your visitors, and they will end up skipping the content or moving on to another webpage, which is highly detrimental to the success of your organization.
You can add a few basic lines of text along with the icons, to help users understand the intent better. Portray the right message and avoid the fundamental difficulty by using phrases after the icon to offer context and extra knowledge. Let us look at a few icons that can confuse the audience and thus should be avoided:
All About Using Icons Effectively
It has been researched that the human brain tends to process images 60,000 times faster than text.
Also, symbols and visuals with color enhance the reader’s willingness to grasp content by 80%.
Here are some ways you can productively employ icons in your web designs:
Use Icons to Mark Features
Whether you want to introduce a product or talk about your brand if you are enlisting features or benefits, it is better to add an icon with these points to make your content more relatable, readable, and interesting. This is a sound initiative you can take to make your web pages more accessible to your target audience. Use icons as visual invitations to grab the user’s attention and guide them to new functionality. Once you’ve gotten their attention, explain what’s cool about the new feature.
Add a Creative Touch to Your Title
You can also be more creative and make your website more professional and attractive by using icons in the titles, headers, footers, feature lists, sidebars, etc. A very simple icon can add a character to your website.
Combining Icons with Very Long Content
Use symbols around the points you want to convey in your paragraph. This makes the text more accessible to readers. You can also use creative icons as effective breaking points between different paragraphs of text.
Use Symbols Regardless of Size
It doesn’t matter whether you use a small or a big icon for your web pages, the idea is to make it accessible, recognizable, readable, and visually appealing for your audience, provided it doesn’t end up being a potential distraction.
Creatively Place Your Icons
Be creative and place your icons toward the right side of the text. You have the liberty to choose the best position to place your icons, provided they are visually noticeable and well-aligned with the text they are supporting. Using different dimensions, sizes, and placements of icons can make your web page look more dynamic and richer
Say More with Fewer Words
Icons are all about eliminating the use of words and helping people understand the intent, using visuals. You can say a lot without using words, as the primary purpose of using icons on your web pages is to create a collaboration between the product and the content. You must hire UI developers to help you create the right imagery using icons for your professional web pages.
Conclusion
Icons may seem like a traditional way of highlighting content, but today, when the entire focus is on viewer accessibility and convenience, icons come as a savior. Icons are a significant feature in web designs that help in communicating important content and expressing the right message. Icons are highly impactful when based on metaphors that are easily understood and recognized by common users. So, when using icons for your web pages, always think of consistency, readability, and proximity concerning the related content.