Let’s play “What does this icon mean to you?”

UX Dailies

I don’t get to build icons as much as I’d like. Our current design system didn’t have an icon that represented what I needed. I guess I’ll need to make one.

*Designer rubs hands together while giggling gleefully

So tell me, what might this icon represent?

This icon was built in Figma. Not the first tool that comes to mind for building icons, but serviceable and limiting in all of the right ways. It was also really helpful to have an existing library to refer to for style. I’ve found that most of the work in building a library is learning the rules. That tends to come after I’ve built a few icons. The language starts to dial in. I find myself reworking the early icons to fit the new visual dialect. It takes a lot of time and effort to refine. Extending a set is tricky, but having similar objects in shape and concept really accelerates the process. And golly, it sure is fun.