Le icone senza testo sono incomprensibili, ma il testo senza un’icona risulta noioso. Il suggerimento di iA è di utilizzarli entrambi nelle interfacce, ricordandosi che un’icona ha più una funziona “emotiva” che esplicativa:
Humans are both rational and emotional beings: “Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer.” If anything on the subject of icon usability has been proven again and again it is: “Icon plus label works better than icon or label alone.” […]
Do not look for reasons to use an icon because your design feels empty or cold or doesn’t work as well as you expected. Icons do not fix a structurally broken design. Add icons at the very end of the design process, do not play with icons while working on your wireframes. Pictures can stand for 1,000 different words; strong information architecture finds the right notions and puts them in the right context. Get your rationale straight before appealing to emotion.
