Jef Raskin Found That Icons Confuse Beginners More Than Text Labels
"In every study that considered the question"
Driving through heavy rain, the author noticed countless cars without tail lights and traced the problem to ambiguous dashboard iconography: drivers meant to turn on their lights but chose the parking setting, which leaves the rear dark. The same confusion is creeping into Apple's software, where iOS 27 and new keyboards swap text labels like Done and Cancel for checkmarks, ×s, and a loupe. Drawing on Jef Raskin's research and Dmitry Fadeyev's "False simplicity," the piece argues icons save space but cost comprehension.
In every study that considered the question, icons were demonstrated to be more difficult to understand than were labels, especially at first viewing, which contradicts one of the most frequently cited reasons for using icons, namely, comprehensibility for beginners.
- aschla
"Many cars have an AUTO option now, but would you trust it to choose the right thing? I didn’t, being unsure if it properly accounted for daylight rain driving."
While it doesn't negate the iconography discussion throughout the rest of the article, the AUTO option is the intended default, because it turns on low beams in every case where they're needed, including daylight rain driving, which is based on the use of windshield wipers. I'm always a bit baffled at the modern cars driving around without their lights on. The car does it for you these days.
The ability to select low beams vs daylight running lights (DRLs) is mostly for convenience for one-off odd circumstances where you would want to override AUTO for whatever reason.
- alanfranz
The parking lights vs low beam icon are quite standard, at least in the EU, and they tell you the difference when getting your licence.
Icons are still the same as they were 25 years ago AFAICT.
- mrandish
Great article, which I strongly agree with. Another reason I've personally seen for over-reliance on icons instead of text is it's an easier, cheaper way to satisfy localization requirements.