6.4 Visual Thinking and Icons

• The visual nature of computers can challenge the first generation of hackers
• An icon is an image, picture, or symbol representing a concept
• Icon-specific guidelines
• Represent the object or action in a familiar manner
• Limit the number of different icons
• Make icons stand out from the background
• Consider three-dimensional icons
• Ensure a selected icon is visible from unselected icons
• Design the movement animation
• Add detailed information
• Explore combinations of icons to create new objects or actions

• Lexical qualities
• Syntactics
• Semantics
• Pragmatics
• Dynamics