Icon
Stores a reference to an icon, for display alongside a record.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Data:
- Datastores — the datastore, then Table Designer to add or edit a field
Where it helps
- Categories and types, where a consistent icon speeds recognition in a list.
- Navigation and menus, where an icon anchors a repeated item.
- Status, alongside a label.
Put it on the category, not the record
The most common mistake. An icon belongs on the thing being categorised — the status, the type, the department — not on every record that has one.
Setting it per record means a thousand records each carrying a choice, inconsistency between them, and no single place to change it. Setting it on the category means one decision and automatic consistency.
Never icon-only
The accessibility rule, and the same one as colour. An icon alone is ambiguous — a symbol meaning "urgent" to the person who chose it means little to everybody else, and nothing at all to a screen reader.
Always pair it with a label. The icon speeds recognition for people who already know the system; the label is what makes it usable for everybody else.
Keep the set small and consistent
Icons work by being distinguishable at a glance. Twelve similar symbols are slower to read than plain text, and a set drawn from different styles looks unfinished.
Pick a small number of clearly different icons from one family and stay inside it.
Meaning is conventional, not inherent
Very few symbols are universally understood — a handful, and the rest are learned. An icon nobody has been taught is decoration.
Where a symbol carries real meaning, make sure it is introduced somewhere, and lean on the label until people have learned it.
Do not report on it
Grouping by icon is grouping by presentation. If you find yourself wanting to, the category behind it is the field you actually want — which is another reason to hang the icon off a category record.
Icon or icon select?
This type stores a reference you set as configuration. The icon select field gives a user a picker. If an end user should be choosing, use that one; if it is part of your design, this is right.
Worked example
A case datastore shows an icon beside each case type, held on the Case Types record rather than on individual cases. Lists show the icon and the type name together. When the icon for one type is changed, it changes everywhere at once, and no case record was touched.
Recommendations
- Store it on the category, not on every record.
- Always show a label beside it.
- One icon family, and a small set.
- Report on the category, never on the icon.