{"id":114,"date":"2025-01-31T17:34:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T17:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/?p=114"},"modified":"2025-05-25T20:33:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T20:33:23","slug":"wechatdiscover-icon-vs-egyptian-hieroglyphics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wechatdiscover-icon-vs-egyptian-hieroglyphics\/","title":{"rendered":"WeChat&#8221;Discover&#8221; icon VS Egyptian Hieroglyphics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WeChat is a popular social app from China, features a &#8220;Discover&#8221; section symbolized by a compass\u2014a perfect choice, as it universally represents exploration and discovery. This concept isn\u2019t entirely new. While I haven\u2019t found a direct equivalent for &#8220;discover&#8221; in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, symbols like \ud80c\ude09 meaning &#8220;faraway&#8221; or &#8220;travel&#8221; and \ud80c\udca1\u00a0 is a stepping figure symbolizing &#8220;progress&#8221; convey similar ideas through simple visuals. Both ancient and modern designs rely on familiar imagery to communicate meaning effectively.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-115 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/IMG_7301-300x252.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/IMG_7301-300x252.png 300w, https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/IMG_7301.png 335w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-117 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-30-at-19.45.54-300x136.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"134\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-30-at-19.45.54-300x136.png 300w, https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-30-at-19.45.54.png 380w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 296px) 100vw, 296px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-116 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-30-at-19.48.23-300x132.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-30-at-19.48.23-300x132.png 300w, https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-30-at-19.48.23.png 428w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The compass\u00a0icon works well because it taps into a global understanding of direction and navigation, making it intuitive even\u00a0without text. Similarly, ancient Egyptians used \ud80c\ude09 depicting a sun, mountains, and a road and \ud80c\udca1 to symbolize movement and exploration. This shows how humans across eras have used real-world objects to create meaningful symbols.<\/p>\n<p>However, modern icons prioritize simplicity and universality, allowing instant recognition, while ancient hieroglyphs required cultural knowledge to interpret. Another parallel is the shared metaphor of movement: both the compass and \ud80c\udca1 imply exploration, though modern icons are more abstract and minimalist, suited for today\u2019s digital interfaces.<\/p>\n<p>In my view, this comparison highlights a fundamental similarity: both use visuals to convey meaning quickly. The key difference is accessibility\u2014modern icons are globally intuitive, while ancient symbols were culturally specific. As UI design evolves with AR and VR, the core principle will likely remain: using simple visuals to communicate ideas instantly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WeChat is a popular social app from China, features a &#8220;Discover&#8221; section symbolized by a compass\u2014a perfect choice, as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-early-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Spring2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}