Icon Design

A small collection of futuristic inspired icons focused on the future of work and how AI shapes our everyday lives. 

Overview 

Opportunity


The world as we know it is constantly changing, as is our workforce. Technology has sped things up, changed how humans do things, or completely taken over certain tasks. AI has quickly captured the collective attention in how it can provide us weather details, create art from words, or facilitate processes in our work. I worked with this client as a freelance designer to quickly and efficiently create icons to represent the future of work and AI's role in our society.  Creating these icons was focused on capturing novel phenomena in our daily lives in a simple visual representation. 


Goal

Create a collection of ten SVG icons that illustrate how the future of work is being shaped and how AI is involved in our everyday lives. 


Role

UX Designer/Icon Designer 

Concept Definition 

Focusing on Key Ideas 

To begin the design process, I pondered how I could bring the client's idea to life. The client simply wanted ten icons that demonstrated "the future of work and how AI is shaping our lives." I figured the best way to demonstrate these ideas cohesively is to tell a story. The story of an average day-in-the-life person, experiencing an ever-changing work force and AI assistance. With that being said, I came up with the below icon concepts: 

Ideation

Sketches 

I began sketching ideas for each icon concept. Similar to when ideating for products, I used a similar exercise to Crazy Eights. For each concept, I created up to eight ideas, focusing on just bringing ideas to life first, rather than all ideas making sense. I enjoy this ideation exercise because of the challenge to quickly come up with any and every idea, without the pressure of perfection. 

Final Icons

AI Candidate Selection 

The first icon I created demonstrates how the future of work is affected by an AI process that quickly identifies and promotes ideal job applicants. I enjoy the simplicity of this icon because it quickly visualizes someone standing out from the crowd.  



Predictive Alarm

The next icon alludes to AI technology supporting us through predicted alarm scheduling. An alarm set and scheduled masterfully by an AI system we've all come to live (Alexa, Google, Siri). I used a well known visual for the clock, integrated with tech-like visuals and the Wi-Fi symbol to demonstrate the "smart" capabilities.  



Work From Home

The third icon is centered around the work from home setting. A familiar setting, full endless possibilities of connection and creation. The future of work is from home.   

Remote Teamwork

The fourth icon I created focuses on collaboration through remote work. Despite physical distances, humans still find a way to connect. I believe this visual would resonate with many people, as we have found ways to overcome long-distance through technology for a long time now. 

Data-Driven Decisions


The fifth icon highlights data-driven decisions, in which AI streamlines for humans. This change has not only increased productivity, but has created new, unexplored opportunities in work. This icon was more difficult to ideate; however, I believe the emphasis on the "best" data is done well by all tech/AI lines leading to the positively identified bar graph. 

AI Art


The next icon demonstrates the collective's recent obsession with AI's creating art. Fun visuals created using only a few words. I created this icon by combining a classic, timeless piece of art with tech associated visuals. 

AI Predictions


The seventh icon illustrates the AI's ability to streamline work through making predictions and suggested actions. I used the classic robot visual and associated with a lightbulb to indicate smart technology making intelligent decisions and predictions. 

Suggested Music


The next icon visualizes AI taking on our music recommendations while working. Intelligent AI's use previous listening history to recommend music based off words, melodies and overall sounds. I combined the classic record symbol with tech visuals to emulate an advanced music system. I also combined stars/sparkles to symbolize recommended or special music. 

Predictive Text 


The ninth icon visualizes the predictive text AI feature that everyone uses while typing up emails. The filled bubbles indicate existing text, while the encircled and non-filled circles indicate what could be and indicates suggestion from the question mark.



AI Suggested TV


The last icon illuminates AI's suggested show and movie recommendations provided to someone after winding down from their workday. The classic television visual is used, with emphasis on the main title in the screen. The check mark indicates the title is the best option.  



Reflection 

What did I learn from creating the icons? 

I really enjoyed this project from start to finish. Although icons appear to be very simple, creating with the "less is more" mindset is harder than it seems. I quickly realized icons visually look better and make more sense when only necessary detail is used. I believe the biggest takeaway from this project is that less is more with icons. Furthermore, utilizing distinct and recognizable visuals in icons is key to universal use and understanding of it's meaning. Overall, I felt these icons did a great job encapsulating the future of work and how AI is shaping our lives. 


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