User Guide

CHAPTER 5
Icons
5-6 Extras Drawer Icons
Think About Multicultural Compatibility 5
Your icons should be designed with multicultural use in mind. For example,
to localize an icon for outgoing communications, you might consider using
the design of a mailbox. But if you did, you would have to design a different
icon for every country in which your product shipped. Instead, try to design
one icon that is understood universally, or at least in many countries. An
example of an icon that is understood around the world is the Out Box icon.
Even though people in different locations around the world deposit mail in
differently shaped boxes, they all still recognize the Out Box icon as a
representation of outgoing communications.
In general, icons shouldn’t be gratuitously cute. Humor typically doesn’t
translate well to other cultures or languages. Also, don’t use inside jokes or
pictures that represent code names. Although it might work to use such icons
during your development process for product identification, be sure to
remove them and replace them with appropriate icons before you ship your
product. Symbols and colloquial language are usually culturally dependent,
meaning that what one person relates to may have no meaning or may be an
insult in another person’s culture.
Extras Drawer Icons 5
For users to be able to open an application, it must have an icon in the Extras
Drawer. The application name appears beneath the icon in one or two short
lines of text. In addition, an application that stores data has a storage icon in
the Storage folder of the Extras Drawer.
Extras Drawer Icons Together 5
As you design an icon for an application, look at it in the Extras Drawer next
to other icons. Looking at your icon in the context of other icons may help
you determine its visual impact. Is the design too light or too heavy? Is the