Universal Principles of UX

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A word is worth a thousand pictures.

Even though I’ve been writing emails for more than twenty-five years, I still confuse the “attach a file” icon with the “insert a link” icon about 50 percent of the time. I’m also afraid to change the settings on my washing machine because I have no idea what any of the other icons mean, and I’m too lazy to look it up in the manual. And any time an icon starts flashing on my car’s dashboard, I have no idea how concerned I should be, as I have no idea what it could possibly mean.

And it’s not just me. The UIE conducted two experiments to better understand our relationship with icons. When they changed what the icons looked like but kept them in the same location, users were able to adapt and perform their ...