The Proliferation And Problem Of The Sparkles Icon

Kate Kaplan hits something over on the Nielsen Norman Group blog annoys me:

The challenge with this symbol is sparkling ambiguity: Participants in our current research study generally agreed that it was something small particularly. But what was that thing? And why was it special? That was less obvious. We came across very different interpretations.

Man, I hate that sparkle. Correction: I detest it as a symbol, but I sure as hell use the emoji. I might even go so far as to say what I like best Dave Rupert’s introduction to Web Components is that it is littered Emoji every time the word “superpower” is evoked.

(Correction to the correction: I love everything about Dave’s introduction to Web Components. Take the full course!)

In the same way, every time a new icon makes its way into a new app’s interface, Sparkles moves closer to becoming the unofficial AI icon Some menu items became hamburgers And others became kebabs.

It’s ambiguous, right? I have to say that I was thrilled when Notion released a new icon for its AI feature just this week:

A face is interesting! I find human heads less convincing, especially when they are realistic. The same goes for robot heads, another theme that can be discovered in the wild. But a face, especially one that’s a bit whimsical as a line drawing, seems to be able to work in this Notion-specific context. I can imagine another company or app having a hard time creating the same icon because it’s so closely tied to Notion’s overall branding:

I also like that Notion offers multiple versions of the icon for use in different situations.

And yes, it also animates:

I’m not saying Notion has landed on a silver bullet. What I’m trying to say is that they do a great job of moving from ambiguous to more meaningful, something Kate expresses very well:

[S]Parkles are often used to represent not only AI functions and capabilities, but also completely unrelated functions and content, such as: B. visual effects, offers or rewards, personalized ads and new content.

This angers me because I have the pessimistic and presumptuous view that the proliferation of glitter symbols reeks of marketing. Of course I can’t know that, but I’ll unabashedly put on my aluminum hat for it.

However, Kate’s article is a much more thorough investigation that is worth a deeper dive – it is a choice made from an entire book on the subject of successful icon design. I say goodbye with a sobering quote:

Finally, I also expect the icon’s association with AI-driven features to become stronger in the near future. So, for now, it may be useful to use it to specify AI-driven features (or even just new features). Over time, as AI-driven features become more common or even expected across all interfaces, it will be less necessary to highlight them. It doesn’t matter that the features are AI-driven. What matters is that they are there and meet user needs.