People from around the globe must recognize the meanings of the signs in order to make their way to events, facilities, and services. Imagine having to include the words written in many different languages on the signs. You can see that it's much easier in some cases to use graphics to represent concepts. In the computer realm, it's generally easier to recognize symbols across systems than it is to remember keyboard commands. For example, a mailbox, even if it is of a different kind, is still recognizable as a mailbox.
People identify a mailbox with sending and receiving communication.
Figure 8-4 shows two examples of mailbox icons and their equivalent keyboard commands. Figure 8-4 Symbols are easier to understand than keyboard commands Icons provide direct access to items in the interface. People can see a folder, open it, and see its contents, or they can organize their desktop simply by grouping icons, rather than having to remember a lot of filenames and using lists to keep track of their files. Thus using icons contributes to the clarity and aesthetic integrity of the interface. Figure 8-5 shows a desktop with icon groupings.