Usability Checklist for an Icon Request

The following checklist helps to evaluate the request for a new icon from a usability point of view. In case it really makes sense to create a new icon, this checklist will help you provide the icon designer with the right information and a thorough briefing.

 

How to Proceed

To create a recognizable and consistent icon, the icon designer will need information about other, existing icons related to the new one, common symbols and visual conventions already used to visualize certain meanings, and so on. Use this checklist to prepare screen shots or sketches showing the context in which the new icon is going to be placed, including all other icons used in that environment.

Additionally, offer an overview of other existing icons which may be relevant in terms of meaning or style, even if your application does not use them. Well-prepared information and visual material are an invaluable source to the designer, which helps avoid too many design iterations, thus saving a great deal of cost and time in the end.

For answering the checklist questions, download the checklist file, fill it in online and save it. Use the file, together with relevant screen shots and sketches, to communicate your request with the person responsible for icons at SAP, and later on with the icon designer.

Below, you find an overview of the questions in the checklist.

 

Checklist - Overview of the Questions

  1. Do similar icons (in either appearance or content) exist? If so, which ones?
  2. Is an existing icon with additional text adequate?
  3. Which existing icon would be almost right if...
  4. From which existing icon must the new icon differ? Why?
  5. Which term should the new icon replace? (A brief text is better than an unfamiliar icon!)
  6. In which context will the new icon appear? (Screen, tree, list, ...)
    Number of times icon will be used (estimate): ...
  7. How many icons are already present in the screen and/or the application toolbar?
  8. Does the new icon belong to an icon group?
  9. Which other SAP applications and products will the end-user likely have open at the same time? (conflicts, consistency)
  10. Are any important user groups involved? (other cultures, languages, special legal issues...)
  11. Is any special color scheme required?
  12. Do you have specific ideas of how the icon should look?
  13. Has a user test been performed with sketches (outside development!)?
  14. Is the icon intended for use in tab strips? (Only allowed in status displays!)
  15. Icon used as field labels / checkboxes / radio buttons?
    (Only allowed in extremely limited cases, such as generic objects like date, time)

 

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Source:  SAP R/3 Icon Style Guide