Signification of Icons in a Computer GUI

In 1867 in his paper "On a New List of Categories", Charles Peirce said that there were three kinds of signs: icons, indices, and symbols. According to Thomas Sebeok "a sign is said to be iconic when there is a topological similarity between a signifier and its denotata". Icons are then something that resembles the object that they represent. That similarity between icon and object is fundamentally what sets icons apart from the other two kinds of signs. Indices do not have any similarity with their significants, but have a cause and effect relationship. Symbols do not have any direct relationship with an object other than the meaning that imposed or collectively agreed upon a group of humans.

In this paper I want to reflect only on one of the three kinds of signs in Peirce triad. I have selected the icon for this discussion because this is currently one of the most common used and misunderstood terms in our society. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the fact that some very particular pictures called icons have appeared in millions of computer screens around the world. These so called icons are the core elements of the concept called "graphical user interface" (GUI). The GUI is the computer industry's attempt to make personal computing a reality for every one. This virtual environment provides pictures that are suppose to be familiar and allows users to interact directly with them by virtue of a kinesthetic action like the movement of a mouse. This has proven to be a lot more appealing for a great amount of people as oppose to having to memorize and type verbal (symbolic) computer commands.

Computer icons within a GUI are supposed to resemble some real object. The success of an icon on communicating the right meaning to the user depends on the accuracy of the representation and, of course, the user's ability to recognize the relationship. Notice that a computer system will have all kinds of signs built in to communicate with the user. Key words and sentences that provide instructions or alert the user of the status of the system are symbols. A user is considered computer literate when he or she can understand those symbols. Another way in which a computer system communicates with a user is by means of indices. When a system is turned on or off, a light that indicates the status of the system is an index. Indices (in the form of lights) are also used for alerting users that a disk drive is "reading or writing" and a bar of variable length can display a proportion of the time needed to complete an operation. Not only visual signs are employed. Most computer systems will also provide audible indices to alert the user of a completed operation or an error.

These are some examples of icons used on a GUI "desktop": folders, scissors, clipboards, pictures of disk drives, pictures of books, pictures of cameras, pictures of printers. It is outside of the scope of this paper to explain what are these icons use for. However, the meaning of those icons can easily be deciphered from the shapes depicted in them. The name icon has been adopted as a generic term used for all the pictures that sit on a GUI desktop. However, not all of those pictures are actually icons. In fact, many of them are not easily recognizable or in some cases are simply commercial logos.

The meaning of icons on a GUI desktop can also be very ambiguous. The use of arrows or fingers pointing in a certain direction, for example, does not always guarantee that the user will accurately know what will happen when the icon is used. Many studies are presently being conducted to learn about how people interpret the meaning of icons that are supposed to indicate a certain direction of motion within a virtual environment. One of the problems is that there has not been very much written about the analogies used within these environments. I believe that many GUI users have problems distinguishing between what is a desktop versus the pages of a book or a stack of cards. In many instances, the user never abandons the desktop while viewing and interacting with an application that is meant to be made out of pages or cards. This action is perfectly normal in the real world, but within a computer generated environment it gets to be very confusing for many users.

Sebeok states in his book Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics that "the notion of an icon is very much impoverished when viewed, as it so often is, in isolation rather than in the total context of a fully rounded science of signs". The communication process in general is not a simple one. Time is one of the most complex elements in which communication takes place. Signs can and will have different meanings as time passes by. Icons and other kinds of signs may transform into a different kind at different moments in time. Computer icons are a good example of this. Some icons like folders and mailboxes can be become indices when they serve the function of alerting the user that a folder have been opened or that new mail has arrived. The pictures are still icons in the sense that they still have a similarity with the real object. They become a new kind of sign (index) because of their communicative action. In fact, some computers use sounds of animals or musical instruments that are considered icons. However, the specific purpose of alerting the user of a specific system's status classifies those sounds, no matter what they sound like, as indices.

The use of visual representations other than words in computer applications and environments has definitely helped the development and popularization of this technology. The signification of icons and indices seems to be easier for the average computer user than the old method of memorizing and typing verbal commands or symbols. It is still interesting and worth studying the human interpretation of selected icons and indices. Also, it is important to note that when pictures are not a good representation of a real object they will only become a symbol that represents a specific function of the computer. There is the chance that in such an instance, other more conventional methods of representation like simple words might be better suited for the task than an unrecognized picture.

Carlos Colon - March, 1995

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