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Related question: Should we consider “how to visually represent…” questions on-topic?

Over on UX.stackexchange we get quite a few ;what's a good icon for / representation of' questions such as:

https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/49959/icons-or-term-to-show-breakfast-lunch-dinner-and-snackeach

https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/49970/i-need-some-help-with-a-metaphor-representing-requests

https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/49748/how-can-i-show-a-traffic-device-modes

Now, we don't really like these questions. they're not really user experience questions, and they're probably a bit too subjective to have correct answers. However they do have a link to graphic design. So, as an experiment we're going to start migrating the good ones over to you guys.

If you hate the idea then let your mods know and we'll stop sending them over, leave an answer on this post, or just turn up in ux chat and shout at all of us there and we'll stop. However I've run it past some of the guys/gals in your chat room and they were (mostly) welcoming to the idea.

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    These sound like "do my homework" questions.
    – OghmaOsiris
    Jan 10, 2014 at 23:24
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    @OghmaOsiris yes, they do have a bit of that to them. We'll try to be careful with the ones we migrate though. We'd want users to have tried some options out rather than just post "draw me an icon for Location' or something like that, but I do take your point. It's one of the reasons we're not big fans of them on UX.
    – JonW
    Jan 10, 2014 at 23:29
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    @OghmaOsiris I agree. And it's also brainstorming. At the same time, iconography is a core part of graphic design and I do appreciate the desire to sometimes bounce ideas off other professionals. That said, this is SE so I guess we'll have to see if it fits.
    – DA01
    Jan 10, 2014 at 23:52
  • Also, FYI, pertaining to this exact topic, a new propose site just for icons has been posted: area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/63677/icons
    – DA01
    Jan 10, 2014 at 23:53
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    Coolio.... added a question to the Area51 site.
    – Scott
    Jan 11, 2014 at 0:03
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    Similar existing discussion: Should we consider “how to visually represent…” questions on-topic? In my answer for that I discussed how our existing close reasons should be enough to allow us to draw the line between "How to represent X visually" (good) and "Plz draw me an icon wot I can use in my app thx" (bad), and also that we should consider thenounproject.com which often has relevant material already (but quality is variable).
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Jan 13, 2014 at 15:43

2 Answers 2

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I believe, to a certain extent the creative nature of the "what represents..." questions do fit here provided the user has expressed some effort in resolving the problem.

A couple examples:

Good visual alternatives of representing the Push and Pull signs on doors?

New generation of Save icon that is not a "disk"?

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  • I agree with scott. most things in design is more or less subjective. You can follow the rules-of-thumbs created from the dawn of time, and you should know what they are, but breaking them is the fun part. I think these are perfectly fine questions to ask, really. As long as the asker have done some research. And preferably are familiar with some basic UI principles.
    – benteh
    Jan 11, 2014 at 19:27
  • I agree - these questions fit nicely here because/when they are genuine problems that can have one or more solutions that can be judged against criteria and are useful to others not just the asker - "How can I represent X?". Another recent example: Icon to signify “wish” or “wishlist”?
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Jan 13, 2014 at 10:55
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I think they're fine if they have a broad application that can be useful to future visitors. I wouldn't be against the migration of these types of questions from UX. I can't guarantee that all of them sent over will be a good fit for our community, but we can certainly try and rework any questions that don't quite make the cut.

There's also a long list of similar questions already present in our site. In addition to the ones Scott listed, here are some more:

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