If there’s one question I get asked about how to do things online, well, actually, I don’t know what it is, I haven’t been keeping track. But I do very often get asked how to send somebody something. It’ll be how to send a photo, how to forward a webpage, all sorts of things and the answer always begins “You see that ‘Share’ icon?”
Unfortunately their response nearly always begins with “What ‘Share’ icon?” because there are so many and, arguably, none of them really sing out to you as meaning the thing by which you show somebody something. I think the Apple one up there, the square with an arrow bursting out, is the clearest but I am also certain that I think this only because it’s the one I see most often.
Min Ming Lo sees more of them: that image above is from his blog where he says:
What do each of these symbols have in common? They are all trying to convey the exact same action – share! Sharing to a social network or via email is a ubiquitous action nowadays but designers have still not been able to reach a consensus on what symbol to use to represent it. Not only does each major platform use a different icon, but they’ve each witnessed changes over the years.
I have spent sometime thinking about this, trying to figure out which symbol best conveys sharing to the user.
He does come to a kind of conclusion. But it’s the journey that’s worth the read, especially when you see the strange ideas different companies have for what icon to use.