UI Design
Managed, added-to, and then redesigned a library of over 1,000 icons for the Ericsson Adaptive Inventory suite of tools. This was challenging on a few levels:
First challenge was inheriting a legacy set of icons that had been created by numerous designers (and non-designers) over the years with varying degrees of consistency & adherence to branding guidelines across them all.
The next challenge was trying to convey complex concepts within a 16-pixel x 16-pixel size constraint. These were always rendered at 1:1 scale in the application interface and a balance had to be struck between complexity and legibility.
The last challenge actually opened a doorway for me to solve some of the previous issues. At the time, new branding guidelines were being passed-down with a "lighter" look, all outlines, rounded corners were removed, and a much simplified approach to iconography.
The bulk of the examples below are redesigns and re-imaginings of the legacy icons in an attempt to leverage a common design language across similar icon (object) types. Some were redesigns of my own previous designs. Examples below are just a subset of the vast number of icons created and updated.
I was pleased when I learned that Ericsson had been using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) for their icon sets within Adaptive Inventory, but also learned that all instances of iconography within the UI were constrained to 16 x 16 pixels.
This meant that I always needed to be aware of how the vectors would rasterize to a small pixel grid during the design process. To give a point of reference, the following icons are displayed at actual 16 x 16 size:
It was necessary to have variants of certain object types without needing to design an entirely unique icon. Not all objects had variants, but the badging needed to be redesigned (by me) to accommodate overlapping variants on a single object type.
Many objects would have a "group" variant or a "template variant", but it was also just as common for there to be (for example) a group version of an object that is templated, hence needing both the Group and Template badging to distinguish between them. I redesigned the badges to occupy a distinct location that allows for multiple badges.
Below is a subset of some inventory objects shown at their 16 x 16 size (mouse-over to enlarge). There are many more physical, virtual, and logical objects... as well as hundreds of interface icons for information, navigation, & user actions. The examples shown below are some from the rebranding and redesign efforts.
