↵

Special characters - an ambiguous icon that's not a hamburger?

almost 9 years ago from Nick Zakhar, UX Designer at K12.org

  • Mike BulajewskiMike Bulajewski, almost 9 years ago

    Your interlocutor is wrong because he or she is applying a pattern for a different use case. In Word, the Omega icon means insert a mathematical symbol.

    It sounds like your users want to insert non English accented characters. There's no pattern for this in Word because they assume users have set up the keyboard language at the OS level.

    I think your instincts are right, but the Omega icon and the word 'symbol' are both misleading. Ideally you want an icon to represent 'accented characters'. Could be an Ñ if spanish is the most common language. If you need text, then 'accents' probably makes more sense than 'symbols'.

    0 points
    • Nick ZakharNick Zakhar, almost 9 years ago

      That's a really great point!

      My initial hesitation towards the icon was the fact that this was for spanish and french accented characters.. but we're using a greek symbol.

      If he ends up taking my suggestion, he'd probably have a heart attack if I then tried to sell him on this idea, but I appreciate you raising the point. I would think in america the Ñ is much more recognizable and effective for this purpose.

      0 points