A client told me my icons were 'too clever' and it stung but they were right

Last month I was building a dashboard for a local HVAC company in Austin and I spent way too long making custom icons that were super minimal and abstract. I thought they looked slick, but the owner looked at the mockup and said, 'Joel, I got no idea what that squiggle means, is that heat or a snake?' I was pretty defensive at first. But then I went back and replaced the abstract stuff with super literal icons like a little flame for heat and a snowflake for cool. The client approved it right away after that. It made me realize that clever design doesn't help anyone if they can't use it. How do you guys handle getting feedback that feels like it's dumbing down your work?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony16512d ago

Stopped thinking of it as dumbing down and started thinking of it as translating. If the client can't instantly parse what an icon means in 2 seconds then it's a fail no matter how cool it looks. Had a similar thing with an analytics dashboard where the client kept asking what the abstract shapes meant so I switched to literal labels and icons, and it cleared everything up without making the design any less clean.

wendy_clark12d ago

I once drew an icon that looked like a potato when it was supposed to be a cloud.