Here are some examples of where I think Discourse has problems with icons.
disclaimer
I genuinely love Discourse as a platform and I know I can hide icons with CSS.
When I say something is confusing, I mean the UX feels ambiguous.
Padlock
this icon marks both a category with restricted permissions and a closed topic.
- Having the same symbol for two different applications is already confusing. It suggests that a closed topic has restricted permissions. But if an TL3 user has no restrictions in the Lounge Category, why does he see a ?
- A user already know s/he can see a restricted category by… seeing it. Sometimes the best UX is none.
- An icon preceding a title is a very strong signal to the user. So why is it so important that we are so explicitly warned that a topic is closed? Is it an indication, that it contains something offensive or improper? or has no useful information? Is the icon supposed to discourage us from reading it?
Bookmark and Solution
- This is again a very strong signal to precede a title. Why is it so important? Why do we show a bookmark indicator, but don’t show another icon for topics to which we replied? This information seems secondary at best, and could be pushed to another column after the topic.
Pinned
- this is the only icon I find appropriate to come before a title. It suggests “Featured” or “Important”. I can click on it to unpin it or pin it back. It’s a very natural action.
Pencil
- using it for version history on the top right of a post is strange. It’s not exactly editing of the post and the placement makes it really pronounced, as something as essential as date. A more logical place for version history would inside the
menu below the post.
Crossed Eye
- the same icon is used for both “whispers” and “unlisting”. It’s confusing.
- for whispers, the placement in the top right corner of a post seems arbitrary, especially that it’s just an indicator. This is an example, where I really expected to be able to click the icon. It would be more at home below the post, with other clickable icons, or inside the post actions menu ().
Wrench
- easily confused with . Configuration and editing are often interchangeable.
- It’s a menu, even though the icon doesn’t indicate this. We already use
in other places. In fact, the menu button on the top right of the Category View already uses the icon, while a similarly placed config menu in the Topic View is a .