Why Icons Work Icons work effectively in the Macintosh interface as representations of computer entities for several reasons. People often recognize pictures of things and understand them more quickly than they do verbal representations of the same things. For example, studies have shown that traffic signs that have symbols are more recognizable from a distance than signs that have only words. Figure 8-2 shows several examples of traffic symbols.
Symbols cross cultural and language barriers better than words do.
Figure 8-3 shows examples of symbols that are used internationally. For example, at the Olympics pictures communicate ideas such as the locations of various events. 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.