The importance of icons in Web Design

The graphic part and the visual

“Everything for me is visual; this is the way in which my mind works” – Whoopi Goldberg

Ironically or not, this is one of the most valuable guiding quotes in the web design world. We can inspire ourselves by this quote to really create art works in web design that can attract viewers and guide them in the most beautiful way to the final step, to the purpose of the website.

We all know that when we realize a website, the content is the key. But the graphic elements cannot be in discrepancy with this content, so we must realize a perfect tandem between these two levels.

In terms of graphics, we cannot upload a website page with a lot of pictures, so the web design specialists found a replacement for the photos. An element that is equally attractive, and according to studies, as sought, is the ICON.

What is an ICON?

ICONS are a graphic symbol, often identified as a web button. It often represents a link that will lead to another page, especially inserted in the text, in order to make the reading and interpreting process easier for the visitor.

It is an “element that attracts the visitor in the content world on your website” in a much easier way than any other textual element or even visual one. It is less annoying than a picture and much more efficient than a “sectionbreak”.

How do we use the icons?

Icons can be used in many ways when we realize a website. They can be used exactly as paragraph breaks. They can take over the role of “sectionbreaks”. This way, they can represent a link to another page or a details button, to read more from that paragraph, to present details. The text will be much shorter and only users that are interested will click the icon to see details, offering you an opportunity to the segmentation of the visitors, depending on their interest degree.

Also, they can be used in presenting certain sections on the website. They can represent some separators in text to make the content lighter. For example, in a paragraph you can give details about the services offered by a firm. Under it, you can through the icons you choose, in character with every service, you can create a list, presenting the services through representative icons. This creates visibility and, at the same time, it makes the way the visitors read the text easier.

Also, you can create icons for the social buttons, which will send through an attached link directly to the social page representative for the icon. This is the most common way to use the icons.

They can also have another use. They can be strictly used as a graphic element to make the site more beautiful. The most useful example in this case is represented by the use of 3D icons. These are very effective when it comes to catching and marinating the attention of the visitors on the page.

Concluding…

So, shortly, the advantages of sing icons on a web page are extremely numerous and visible. These can be compared with the pictures when it comes to the efficiency of relaxing the content and catching the attention of the viewers.

As I was saying in the beginning, very much of what the attention of a viewer represents on the content on our website is represented by the visual. The ICONs are, in this case, one of the most efficient ways to attract the attention of our visitors.