# Ações e marcação: Ícones versus Tags

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/actions-and-markup-icons-vs-tags/85741>\
**Category:** UX\
**Created:** [Abril 19, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/actions-and-markup-icons-vs-tags/85741 "2018-04-19T19:16:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 8

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**Author:** ![BlackKnob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/blackknob/32/93549_2.png) [@BlackKnob](https://meta.discourse.org/u/BlackKnob)\
**Post date:** [Abril 20, 2018, 2:55am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/actions-and-markup-icons-vs-tags/85741/8 "2018-04-20T02:55:43Z")

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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 🔧.

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