Case Study Icon Design

This week's design challenge is all about icons. Deceptively simple, yet the possibilities are endless. Starting by wanting to make an icon for my case studies quickly spiraled into a search for understanding.

Thinking about how to define a “case study” as an image, I started by telling the story of a case study visually. Failed attempts followed by a solution. This was represented by a couple of X’s followed by a checkmark. This might show a process, but it doesn’t capture the reasoning in a case study. That got me thinking more broadly. Maybe the case study only needs to be seen as a document. 

In creating document icons, I explored different line weights, sizes, smooth or sharp edges, all in search of my elusive case study. As I kept going, putting different principles into play, I began to realize there was no end. I simply stopped so I could write about it before it got too late. What is the real purpose of this case study icon? Does it need to fully represent an idea that anyone can understand instantly? For this example, maybe not.

There are certainly some icons that need to be understood without context. Certainly, if you don’t speak the same language, the visual language should be widely understood. In this case, though, my icon will help to reinforce visual skimming on my website. Once the user associates the icon with my case study, then when looking around for similar, or different content, the icon will speed up the process over time.

In my exploration of a good icon, I’ve realized simple graphic elements can easily be misunderstood without context, language, and history. This leaves my current case study icon still on the drawing board. I will most likely use the icon next to the text explaining it, but really, is there any other way?

Here are a few quick tips on the creation of icons I found along the way. Start in black and white to see if the graphic is visually legible. Turn any outlines into shapes in any program to make sure the line weight isn’t affected by size. Test the icon out at extremely different sizes to see if it works within different contexts. And ultimately, test the icon with many different people to see if they understand what it is without explanation.