Icon 1.

Facebook Notifications Icon

The Facebook notifications icon is a really smart solution to what it was made for. It resembles a ringing bell vector image and depending on how many notifications the user has there will be a little red circle on the top left of the bell icon alarming the user that they have a notification. The red giving a sense of urgency especially as it contrasts against the greys and white. The bell vector is a really whimsical way of illustrating a notification as you would commonly associate bells with attention grabbing rings. Attention grabbing being one of the main purposes of the icon so that the user may see any important notification on time and make the site easier to navigate.

Icon 2.

Facebook Logout Icon

  This icon illustrates an open door with an arrow directing out of it. This is an effective way to illustrate a dramatic sense of leaving and of movement on the site. It shows online users of the site how to leave it and encourages them to log out securely and safely off of the site. There is a great sense of movement to this icon and is very visually recognisable- you definitely don’t need to be overly familiar with social media and computer language to be able to understand this form of site navigation.

Icon 3.

Facebook Home Icon

  The Facebook home icon redirects users to their homepage/ to their main feed. Home icons are generally very similar ranging from site to site, making the icon for a home page universally recognised and understood – all that being needed to communicate a house to a user being two walls, a roof and a door. In facebooks case the Home icon is grey until selected when it fills blue. Introducing a level of boldness to it that clearly shows the user where they are on the site. The Home button is always visible and available regardless to where you are on the site be that in a Facebook game, chat or settings. Making it an easy access portal or escape button back to the main depths of the site.

 

Susan Kare

Susan Kare Developed the first icons for Apple’s Macintosh, humanising the Macintosh and giving it “a smile”. She took the cold interface of the computer and and worked hard to develop a user friendly graphical user interface that took the intimidating stigma away from computers. Her work was seen as being very fun and whimsical, and it left Susan to be seen as a very influential iconographer. Her work that was made even all the way back in the 1980s is still used frequently as a point of reference by iconographers today.