View source for UsabilityDesignPatterns/CrypticIcon

= CrypticIcon =

As I edit this page on MediaWiki, I see a row of icons directly above the text editing box.  From left to right they are...

# A bold letter B.  I can guess this means "bold".
# An italic letter I.  "Italicize".
# The letters "Ab", in blue and underlined.  Maybe this means insert a link?
# A globe with a dogeared paper in front of it.  The globe might imply the World Wide Web?  So maybe this one is "insert a link"?  But then what's the last one?
# A huge letter A, overflowing its frame.  Um, text size?
# A white rectangle with illegible pixels inside it.  Picture, maybe?
# A trumpet-looking thing.  I have no idea.
# A square-root-of-n symbol.  Insert equation, maybe?
# The letter W inside a red circle with a slash through it.  I have no idea.
# Part of a signature.  Insert information about the editor, maybe?
# A minus sign or horizontal line.  Insert a horizontal line?

Now I'll go hover the mouse over each one to find out what they really mean.  The software helpfully provides tooltips for each icon, but this means that whether I'm browsing or whether I'm searching for a particular command (see [[UsabilityDesignPatterns/RecognitionVsRecall]] I have to point at the icons one at a time to discover what they do (a very inefficient linear search).

Note that out of eleven icons, a full ''seven'' are pictures of text in some form.  If the command is abstract enough that the only icon one can come up with is a picture of text, and then you ''also'' need to add a textual tooltip to explain the icon, you have to wonder in what sense the icon is helping to explain anything.

== Causes ==

Like all antipatterns, it happens in response to a reasonable set of design constraints:

# The number of available commands is large (and possibly growing over time).
# The designer wants all the command options to be visible.
# There is not enough screen space to devote a lot of it to explaining each command. (Possibly related to the growth in the number of commands - need to save room for the next command to be added!)