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Irene Reppa, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Swansea University

What makes the ideal digital icon? A psychologist explains

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Digital icons are everywhere – and usually, we interpret these visual symbols in the blink of an eye. Who today doesn’t know that a wastebasket means “delete” and a magnifying glass means “search”?

Yet icons’ meanings can be deeply shaped by culture, experience and technological history. So what seems obvious to one person may be confusing to another.

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