Reflections on an Icon Development Process: Negotiating Design Issues
http://www.stc.org/confproceed/1996/PDFs/PG432435.PDF

Hunt, Kevin
STC Proceedings
1996

Abstract:

Technical communicators with visual design skills increasingly are called upon to help design of the 'look and feel' of software interfaces, including icons and toolbar buttons. Several practitioners in technical communication have developed useful guides for developing icons and toolbar buttons. Unfortunately, sometimes the application of these guidelines is complicated by issues that arise within the contexts of specific software development environments. This paper briefly reviews research and guidelines. It then reviews issues that might arise during the development process and guidelines for negotiating them based on the author’s experiences developing icons at two different software firms.