to ask if this iconography makes sense...

[IAmALentilWeaver]

I have NCed for this, but need to know if IABU.

Imagine you work in a school and you have a central database that holds info about PUPILS, TEACHERS, EXAMS and REPORTS (amongst other things) - and these are the unlabelled icons you are presented with.

What would intuitively think each of these icons would relate to/it's function? (given the four options above)
Also - do you think any of these are related to each other?

A - Settings (to customise your own profile on database)
B - Teachers
C - Pupils
D - Exams
E - Reports

D & E were hard to determine. The clipboard suggests someone walking round making notes which is why I chose reports. If D is exams, a tick rather than a red line might be a bit more exam-esque.

A - some sort of settings, accessible only to teachers.

B - teachers

C - pupils

D - exams (because it has an idea of a stopwatch, ie time constraint, about it)

E - reports

A/B potentially ambiguous because of the mortarboard on both, though the cog in A is conventionally 'settings'.

B/C potentially ambiguous because the mortarboards are not very clear, and not everyone will recognise them as s reference to academic dress.

D/E are entirely clear to me, but there's clearly disagreement about them on this thread, so I guess they're also ambiguous.

@JellySlice

What 'area/s' would you say D and E are for? The same area? different? If so which one/s?

Do you think that, of the four categories, some of these icons belong to none of them?

and if so any of you think that the icons apply to a 'missing' category.. eg other schools... parents.... activities... attendance registers...

... i will tell you what they represent soon - promise!

A - settings, probably only accessible by the SLT but maybe to all teachers
B - teachers 'community'
C - pupils 'community'
D - unclear - It might be exams but if the curved arrow is supposed to indicate time then it should go clockwise.

E - unclear. Probably Reports.

B and C are somewhat related in that they're the same type of thing but for different groups of people. A and B are related in being for teachers.

I said:

D - exams (because it has an idea of a stopwatch, ie time constraint, about it)

E - reports

But, as Errol said, the arrow ought really to go clockwise if it is intended to indicate time passing.

@JellySlice sorry, i missed your previous post

Ok, so here they are;

A - pupils (where you create/edit their details in like name, dob etc)
B - pupils (where you configure a dashboard for pupils to access their personalities info like or exam results)
C - tricked you.... none of the above! It’s actually PARENTS?? ( same functionality as B, but for parent access)
D - exams (specifically school exams, not public exams GCSEs etc)
E - exams (specifically public, GCSEs etc)

Now, knowing the answers, can you see any reason why D and E are so different? Or anything that links them together?

Can anyone think why they would not use the gear icon for the configuring off dashboards, but instead use it for the form filling of pupil info?

Nothing makes sense, there are about 40 icons, on which sometimes a gear means configure, sometimes colours match, sometimes icon matches, sometimes nothing matches.

It’s utterly bizarre and unintuitive to me but apparently the company tested this and got positive feedback???

I don't believe them. (family of graphic designers and artists here).

Sorry to be sneaky about parents and nothing with teachers...or reports
In the previous iteration all teacher related bits had icons of heads wearing mortar boards .... So I’m glad most people thought the mortarboard was something to do with teachers!

It’s utterly bizarre and unintuitive to me but apparently the company tested this and got positive feedback???

Very non-intuitive. I write software, we have icons representing all sorts of scientific and abstract concepts, and we manage way better than those. Obviously if there is a 'standard' like the cog, we use it appropriately.

Do the icons have flyover tool tips so that users can work out what they mean despite their oddness?

You can hover over them to reveal the name of the module.

But ... one they could just have the name right there underneath...and two make them intuitive!

A good user interface is like a good joke; it shouldn't need an explanation.

Slight misquote

A. makes sense in the context; i.e. it is a dashboard but for pupils.
C. would be a better icon for B.
B. looks like they are wearing mortarboards, so teachers.
D&E - nothing there differentiates between the two types of exam.

I would show 'parents' as a large figure and a small figure, as in P&C parking.

I'd show external exams as a certificate - so square with some lines and a rosette on it.

I'd show internal exams as lines on a page with a row of ticks.

However, I have no experience at all in web design so might be talking rubbish!

Great analogy, Sausage, whichever way round you phrase it.

I'd guess B is pupils, C is teachers and E is reports

So, some more examples....

The blue icon is mark books...(but could be mistaken for calendar or timetable)

. the orange icon is registration... look how similar the orange icon is to the blue exams (clipboards with pencil)....But these two things have absolutely nothing to do with each other

I don't understand the relation of that icon to mark books at all. I would see it as a calculator.

Clipboard is too similar to the other icon. No idea how they take registers in the 21st century, but in my childhood it was always a register book so the clipboard would throw me completely off track.

Bizarre.

Teachers settings
Teachers
Pupils
Exams
Reports

But ... one they could just have the name right there underneath...and two make them intuitive!

Quite - and sausage is spot on.

Unfortunately though, by the way you have asked this question, you have not proved your point. You have specifically and repeatedly asked people which of the four categories you suggested related to which icon.

Now you are using that as evidence that an icon looks like it should mean, eg teachers or pupils or whatever, when actually it represents parents.

But you didn’t give parents as an option, and neither did you you just give people a free choice to say what they thought - so you can hardly use that as evidence to back up your complaint when you have forced people to come to the conclusion you wanted - nobody could possibly say “parents” when you had told them to choose from four options not including parents, could they?

So it was just a waste of everyone’s time really.