Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Role of Icons in Menus

  • Thread centers on whether “icons everywhere” in menus (esp. macOS Tahoe, Google Docs/Sheets) improves usability or just adds visual noise.
  • Many see a shift from earlier guidance (“icons only when helpful”) to a blanket “everything gets an icon” aesthetic.

Arguments that Icons Help

  • Faster scanning: users report they can spot known icons (delete, link, align, justify, save) much quicker than reading full labels.
  • Muscle memory: icons act as landmarks; over time people navigate by “second item under the trash icon” more than by words.
  • Cross‑surface consistency: menu icons match toolbar/shortcut icons, teaching users there’s a faster way than menus.
  • Localization & literacy: icons help when language skills are weak or UI/docs are in different languages; some low‑vision or post‑stroke users rely on icons more than text.
  • Empirical claims: UX research and big‑app testing (e.g., social feeds) reportedly show some users prefer text, some icons, many both; icons+labels generally maximizes “legibility.”

Arguments that Icons Hurt (as Commonly Implemented)

  • Visual clutter: dozens of tiny monochrome, look‑alike symbols blur together; users must read labels anyway, defeating the purpose.
  • Poor distinctiveness: flat, same‑shaped, same‑color sets (Google app icons, AWS/Atlassian, Tahoe menus) are hard to tell apart; silhouettes and color are missed.
  • Arbitrary mapping: icon packs encourage picking “closest” glyphs, not meaningful ones; many menu icons don’t clearly depict their action.
  • Lost hierarchy: when everything has an icon, icons can no longer highlight frequent or important commands; thoughtful omission used to signal priority.
  • Some users simply ignore icons and read only text; for them it’s pure noise.

Design Quality, Patterns, and Guidelines

  • Positive models: Blender’s commands always have labels, icons only when widely understood; older Windows/Office guidelines and macOS/GTK recommend icons for common, well‑illustrable actions, not all items.
  • Customization praised: KDE/GTK settings (icons only/text only/both), Office‑style configurable toolbars, and the idea of per‑user menu icon preferences.

Save Icon and Symbolism Debate

  • Strong disagreement over the floppy‑disk save icon:
    • One side: it’s now just a conventional symbol; changing it would confuse.
    • Other side: it’s no longer representative for most users and exemplifies non‑illustrative, logo‑like symbols that communicate only via prior learning, not depiction.