I used to manage a team working on the news feed at Facebook (main page).

We did extensive experimentation, and later user studies to find out that there are roughly three classes of people:

1) Those that use interface items with text 2) Those that use interface items with icons 3) Those that use interface items with both text and icons.

I forget details on the user research, but the mental model I walked away with this that these items increase "legibility" for people, and by leaving either off, you make that element harder to use.

If you want an interface that is truly usable, you should strive to use both wherever possible, and ideally when not, try to save in ways that reduce the mental load less (e.g. grouping interface by theme, and cutting elements from only some of the elements in that theme, to so that some of the extra "legibility" carries over from other elements in the group)

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tvbusy 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Sounds like me: 1. For new UI/tool, I depend on text to navigate. 2. Once I'm more familiar, I scan using icons first then text to confirm. 3. With enough time, I use just icons. 4. Why the ** do they keep moving it/changing the icons?

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stronglikedan a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Those that use interface items with icons

This is the bane of my existence since icons aren't standardized* and the vast majority of people suck at designing intuitive ones. (*there are ISO standard symbols but most designers are too "good" to use them)

	▲	specialist a day ago \| parent [-]
		Cite cliché about the only intuitive user interface is the nipple; everything else is learned. Having done my share of UI work, my value system transitioned from esthetics to practicalities. Such as "can you describe it?" Because siloed UI, independent of docs, training and tech supp, is awful. All validated by usability testing, natch. It's hard to maintain strong opinions UI after users shred your best efforts. Humilitating. Having said all that... If stock icons work (with target user base), I'm all for using them. PS I do have one strong opinion: less is more.

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virgil_disgr4ce a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Hooray, actual user research and data!! This is what I tell all my clients: "We can speculate all day long, but we don't have to. The users will tell us the correct answer in about 5 minutes."

It's amazing that even in a space like this, of ostensibly highly analytical folks, people still get caught up arguing over things that can be settled immediately with just a little evidence.