I’m a big fan of Apple design under most circumstances, and their iconography, where used, tends to be pretty good. I think the most challenging icons to design would be the three for Control, Option, and Command, since these are pretty abstract concepts with no immediate symbolic correspondence. So, let’s take a look at them:

Shift: Okay, an up arrow…this has been the shift symbol since the days of manual typewriters. Easy, no biggie.

Command: ⌘ In typical Apple fashion, they’ve taken something abstract that doesn’t make any inherent sense and made it intuitive fairly quickly as you learn the system (a la the ipod click-wheel). The fact that the symbol is actually ON the keyboard key itself as well certainly helps. It’s also a unique icon that won’t be confused with anything else.

Option: ⌥ And here lies my beef with Apple. Maybe it’s just me, but after using Macs for nearly 15 years now, I STILL struggle to figure out what the hell this icon means. For a long time, I thought it was the shift symbol — the ramp between two levels in the symbols somehow implied that in my mind. I eventually figured it out, but it’s far from intuitive.

Now, you would think this would be the same principle as the command icon — a meaningless symbol that quickly gains meaning and becomes intuitive to the user. However, there are two important differences: 1) the symbol is not also on the keyboard key itself, and 2) the icon itself is not immediately unique and recognizable. Instead, it is somewhat kludgy and busy.

In order to be a constructive critic, I’m working on some better option icon suggestions…More on that later.