Not a bad title for a horror movie, isn’t it? However, if we look closer - icons are really everywhere but no one is frightened by this fact. Just on the contrary – every possible pictograms and signs are made to make perception of important information easier, and thus to make our whole life easier. Yes, it sounds too exalted, but the use of various signs cannot be diminished. Otherwise – why are they so wide-spread, and not only in the Internet but also in our everyday, offline life?
A sign is simple, clear and fast.
Let us take high-voltage equipment. What is depicted on it? Right, a skull and bones. And the title: “Danger! Do not get in”. Simple and clear.
Certainly, this variant is politically incorrect: it limits the rights and freedoms of citizens and generally contradicts to all possible codes and even to the Constitution. According to the law everything is made for people, including booths, including high-voltage booths. And they not only prohibit to get in, but also threaten people with punishment. In theory they should have placed a set of courses in electricity, electro-techniques and physics for the ninth class near each booth; and a person could have studied the possible consequences and then decide whether he gets in a booth or not. Still, we have a jural state. But while a man is studying all these products of academic thought, he will get in this unfortunate booth for many times and most probably will not get out of it. Yeah… Terrible, sad, but legally correct.
Basically, this example is enough to understand how important and effective signs and icons are. A human life depends on them. Probably, if we take icons in Internet sites, it is not that dramatic, but if we look closer Internet icons save peoples’ lives. Now we will explain how and why.
It is no secret that icons make site navigation much more convenient. The better a user feels on a web-site, the higher the possibility of his coming back is. And the more users come back, the higher the attendance and the cost for advertising is. Thus, the income from a web-site directly depends on using icons. And now imagine that there is no income: what a web-site owner is going to eat? A terrible and absurd death from starvation… And he should only have used icons on his web-site!
So if you want to live – use icons. Neither more, nor less.
www.icojoy.com | Krikanov Dmitry
