How Smart Are Your Icons? Are They ‘Smart Icons’?

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At Skylab we’re always chasing down cool ideas and one of the best places to find cool new projects and ideas is Kickstarter.

Recently, one member of the Skylab team came across “Smart Icons” and shared a link with the team.

So what are “Smart Icons?”

“Smart Icons” leverage most modern web browsers’ ability to display .svg files. SVG files are vector graphics which means no matter how big they are stretched they always look crisp and clean.

How is that different from a normal icon?

This breaks the mould of static iconography by adding another layer of information. The image below is just a screenshot but it’s one example of a “smart icon”. The working clock icon when embedded tells the current time.

Can these “Smart Icons” do anything else?

This is just one example but there are others available, such as a thermometer. The team behind the icons has even gone so far as to create responsive icons that change based on the available width of the screen much like our website for ITN but on a smaller scale. You can imagine how these responsive icons being used in a responsive website could create another layer of contextual information that functions across multiple platforms flawlessly.

“Smart Icons” are also capable of displaying various states, much like your mobile phone does for it’s battery. (Although that’s not an SVG image.)

Just how important are these “Smart Icons”?

The project has gotten a fair amount of notice being discussed on Twitter and across a few blogs.

I backed Iconic’s kickstarter at $100 because I feel I’ll get a ton of value from watching how they build smart icons http://t.co/Xc4nrjSIFI

— Jason Grigsby, ☁4 (@grigs) October 3, 2013

Smart icons | Iconic http://t.co/0PBO8jMpzg via useiconic</p> — Julia Briend (juliabrr) October 4, 2013

Check out the references below to find links to other articles written on the topic.

The real win for the team behind the “Smart Icons” project is just how much funding they’ve received so far. The project has been funded 281% reaching over $42,000 (USD).

Alright, enough, let’s see the icons.

The team hasve also been kind enough to provide a full open source icon toolkit on Github.

If this really appeals to you, you can back Iconic’s “Smart Icons” on Kickstarter but, the door closes on Thursday Oct 17, 12:44pm EDT.

More so, if you're interested in delivering a digital project that's fresh and unique get in touch with us on Twitter @studioskylab or via email at [email protected].

References:

1. “Kickstarting: Smarter Icons That Live Like Software” - Sept. 25, 2013 - Pradodesign.com Blog
2. “Making Web Icons Smarter” - P.J. Onori - Oct. 7, 2013 - Webdesign.tutsplus.com
3. “@grigs” - Jason Grigsby, ☁4 - Oct. 3, 2013 - Twitter
4. “Iconic: Advanced icons for the modern web” - Oct. 7, 2013 - Kickstarter
5. “@davidcmoulton” - David Moulton - Oct. 3, 2013 - Twitter
6. “@juliabrr” - Julia Briend - Oct. 4, 2013 - Twitter
7. “@kshah24” - Kushal Shah - Oct. 6, 2013 - Twitter