Icons add a lot of value to an application based on the principle that a picture is worth a thousand words. Equally important is the fact that they can, when well designed, please the eye and serve as memory joggers for your user. We humans strongly associate symbols with actions. For example, a save
button with a disc icon is more evocative. The association becomes even stronger when we use the same icon for the same action in menus and button bars. It is also possible to use icons in place of text labels. It is an important thing to keep in mind when designing the user interface of your application that the navigational and action elements (such as buttons) should not be so intrusive that the application becomes too cluttered with the things that can be done. The user wants to be able to see the information that they want to see and use input dialogs to add more. What they don't want is to be distracted with links, lots of link and button text, and glaring visuals.
In this...