Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Icon fonts on websites
Raised as a usability problem by 4 people on Hacker News over 8 years (2016–2023), in 4 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Icons render as empty boxes when user overrides site fontsUnreviewed
20162026- Icons made with downloadable fonts become inaccessible when the font fails to load2023-03-02
- Without the font loaded, icon buttons show as meaningless characters, so users can't tell what buttons do2019-12-20
- Icons render as empty square boxes when the user overrides the site's fonts2018-09-03
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 4 complaints
- Icons made with downloadable fonts become inaccessible when the font fails to load2023-03-02
- Without the font loaded, icon buttons show as meaningless characters, so users can't tell what buttons do2019-12-20
- Icons render as empty square boxes when the user overrides the site's fonts2018-09-03
- With web fonts blocked, icons show as question marks, so menu and search are ambiguous2016-12-09