Icon Design

Navigation Icons for Web-Based Applications

Design Challenge

OnDemand Personal Navigator, the Web-Based Player presents authored content in four modes:

• See It: A simulated play back that requires no user interaction
• Try It: A simulated play back that requires the user to execute a prompted step
• Know It: A simulated play back that requires the user to execute a step as a test of his or her knowledge
• Do It: A small window that provides context sensitive help, live from the target application while the user is engaged in actual work.

As part of the interface redesign, Engineering needed new monochromatic icons for users to launch each of these modes. The icons needed to suggest the name of the mode and the nature of the functionality.

Design Solution

I created icons incorporating aspects of the human figure to suggest the type of participation with images of a computer to reinforce the concepts.

Design Challenge

Knowledge Pathways, a Web-Based Learning Content Management System, often used in conjuction with OnDemand, presents the following functionality on the home page:

• Start Learning: Start a course from the beginning
• Continue Learning: Continue with a course where you left off
• Search Courses: Look for specific text in course content
• User Profile: Edit you login name, password, and e-mail address
• Mentor Students: Answer students’ questions online
• Ask an Expert: Ask a mentor a question online
• Notebook: Write notes to yourself for access at any time during learning
• Reports: Create reports on your learning activity
• Help: Access help on the program
• Close: Close the program

Engineering needed buttons containing monochromatic icons for users to launch each functionality. Because the icons appeared in locations without descriptive text, they needed to be intuitive. As an additional requiement, the buttons needed the match the look and feel of those in OnDemand Personal Navigator.

Design Solution

I created icons based on common interface icon conventions and imagery commonly associated with each of these concepts.