Icons

[tomf87]

Should we have a set of icons we can use to represent the same 'things' in different diagrams?

[nicprice]

Do we want to start from scratch, or would it work to choose a suitable set from e.g. https://thenounproject.com/icons/ (assuming we can find a suitable set of course)

Maybe we can list the types of 'things' we'd like to represent in our diagrams etc.

[tomf87]

I guess consistent icons for common channels/touchpoints would be helpful? Maybe different types of user as well - especially internal users where there's more likely to be consistency in job role?

[TomBr0wn]

I used to use these... https://streamlinehq.com/

[mglancy]

Is this:

• we need consistent icons so that people understand that the same icon means the same thing? If so, are there examples of confusion? And if there are, is that about consistency, or icons sometimes being hard to understand?
• we want to have a Defra house style? If so, is this because designers coming in to Defra expect to have a set of icons to use? Do other departments have these?
• we want to use icons that match a standard - eg is there an ISO standard for flow charts etc, or a standard already used by business analysts/architects? Which brings us on to:
• we want to use the same icons as other professions in DDAT?
• we want to know where to go to find the icons to use - in other words it's a subset of the problem 'where can designers find common components/information'. In which case the problem to solve is the common storage place and method.

[tomf87]

So for me I think it's more about having a house style than because we've identified examples of confusion. But I also see it as something akin to optimising our design workflows - you're not wasting time looking for an appropriate icon and worrying if you have the right permissions to use it. I also see this as a first step to having some other patterns for how we create maps and diagrams, which is definitely something other departments do have.

That's an interesting question about an ISO standard - the closest I could find is ISO 5807:1985 which focuses on data and system flows, I'm not familiar with any other standards that would apply to UX design artefacts but would be interested to learn what else is out there.

I don't know if other DDAT professions have a similar approach for using icons and hadn't considered wider consistency across professions - maybe we should collect a few examples of artefacts created by other professions to see how much we might need to consider this when building our own set of icons?

I envisaged the icons would sit alongside other components and tools we've created and link to in the defra design resources, although we also need to rebuild that repo to make things easier to find.