Icons and Why You Should Have Them on Your Website
Recently I’ve been working on a largely educational website for a client. It’s packed full of loads and loads of really important information, which is great if you also have lots of imagery to liven up the content. Unfortunately, however, this client doesn’t have much usable photography, so I’ve been doing quite a lot of work with icons. This, of course got me thinking about icons and how useful they are in website design.
What exactly are icons?
They are, in case you didn’t know this already, small, graphic elements that provide meaning, visual interest, guidance and connection for visitors to your website. They differ from graphics in that they are typically small and relatively simple.
Icons are extremely useful because they can visually sum up and convey lots of information quickly. They also can be very attention grabbing and can be used to quickly make a point or highlight a section of a page.
They’re also super fun to design, so I had no shortage of my own work to use to demonstrate what I’m talking about.
What have icons done for me lately, and why should I care?
A lot, it turns out. Here are a number of ways icons can make a blah website visually interesting and user friendly. Icons can:
ATTRACT ATTENTION
Icons are great for drawing the eye to a section of your website. I used these striking red and black icons to get users of the Women in Commercial Finance website to stop and really get a sense of the impact of the event.
COMMUNICATE MEANING
They also do an excellent job of adding meaning to your copy. I used them on my own website to clarify what I mean by Brand, Digital and Print Design.
NAVIGATE
On the Basalt Education Foundation site, they help to guide viewers to the funding pages and reinforce that they made it to the right place when they get there.
MAKE A CONNECTION
They can also be very helpful in getting your viewer’s to connect with your copy and your cause, as these hand drawn icons were meant to do on this (no longer live) school district ballot initiative website.
If you’re curious about how icons can jazz up your website, let me know. I’d love to design a custom set of icons for you this spring!
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