How do the buttons and functions on software tell their own story? How do the mute little creatures say that they are, in fact, a button, and that you should push on them if you want to do something?
A short, outstanding post by Swiss designer Lukas Mathis in his blog Ignore the Code summarizes key lessons about how developers create icons and buttons that actually communicate what they do, without communicating more than you need to know. His observations on how comic books serve as models for communication are fascinating.
Designer Lukas Mathis praises the “leaf” application icon for Panic’s Coda software, an icon developed by the design firm Iconfactory.
