Icons often appear on web pages, and while there are many available to choose from, they should be used with care.

On web pages, icons are typically used in one of two ways. They are either visual cues, associating some small picture with different parts of the text (for example, some pages have icon-sized characters that appear next to instructions). Alternatively, they are used in much the same way as in a standard WIMP interface to represent aspects of the functionality of the underlying pages.

In this latter case, they must represent their associated functionality in either a concrete or an abstract form. This means that the design of the individual icon has to be carefully thought out, as a lot of information may have to be represented in a small area of screen estate. However, icons arc rarely seen on their own, and when placed next to their neighbors, the whole effect has to be pleasing rather than disruptive and garish.

Therefore, the group of icons has to be designed together with a coherent and recognizable style. The picture is broader than this, however other applications also use icons, which has its advantages and disadvantages.

One advantage is that certain icons are already associated with specific functionality (for example, a picture of a floppy disk to represent 'save').

Disadvantages are that it restricts the individuality and style icon sets can show, and may mean that icons designed for one purpose are misunderstood by users because they have seen something similar in another context.

It is therefore vital that time is spent in examining the way icons are used in other systems, before importing them into web pages or designing new ones. Icons sometimes appear for no apparent reason at all, when the page creator has decided that as graphics are supported, a few should be used.

One interesting example is the icon that is a copy of the roadwork’s sign, used in conjunction with text saying something like 'This page still under construction!'. This is an interesting social effect brought on by the ease of web publishing —incomplete (sometimes even non-existent!) information can be made immediately available.

It's like buying a map of the world nowadays and finding 'here be dragons' around the edges because the geographer could not be bothered to draw all the countries in. Most pages can be designed properly before they are made available, structured and presented in a complete and coherent way, allowing for extensions and updates from the beginning.

There are times when the disclaimer 'under construction' has its uses: when critic-ally important information becomes available, publishing it may well be more important than presenting it. There is, too, a sense in which web pages can be continually 'under construction', changing, evolving and growing, because of their dynamic nature and the ease with which they can be updated, but this does not obviate the designer's responsibility to create pages that have both form and content.