The best icon is a text label
> Don’t use an icon if its meaning isn’t a 100% clear to everyone. When in doubt, skip the icon. Reside to simple copy. A text label is always clearer.<p>The article is misguided, in that it assumes that the meaning of an icon only exists in the lines/color/visual form of the icon. Icons are <i></i>visual language<i></i>. You have to <i>teach</i> the user what the icon means. Either the user has seen the icon before (such as in airports), or if the user hasn't, your UI has to accommodate that.<p>Once that happens, then icons are way faster.<p>Icons are like visual acronyms. The sequence of letters 'T', 'C', 'P', 'I', 'P' means nothing to someone who doesn't already know what 'Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol' is, but once you do, TCP-IP is way faster to recognize, speak, type, and to share.