Soundcloud is a music streaming and sharing service where members can create an account to listen, upload, and share their favorite songs. Within the Soundcloud application the use of icons to represent different pathways of musical exploration is plentiful. Many times an icon is used in place of text such as in the menu of the application. Although these icons are modernized, the idea of representation through recognizable symbols remains prevalent, transcending the early use of symbols within ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
One unique symbol used in Soundcloud is the lightning bolt icon found in the main navigation menu of the application. This lightning bolt stands for the stream section of the app where you can see any new songs that have been posted by those you follow. The use of the lightning bolt specifically was likely a design choice made to connect the users emotions to the page it would open. Since it would be hard to find an icon that would directly reflect the content of the page, the designers chose to use the lightning bolt to represent a spark-like concept, where one would gain new possibilities when entering this page. This concept can be first found in places like the hieroglyphics as there may not have been exact symbols to represent a concept, however the Egyptians were able to assign new symbols meanings that may have evoked that feeling or dealt with a similar concept.
Another icon used in the Soundcloud application is a minimal graph type symbol that sits on a menu next to the text “insights”. This page of the app allows users to access different analytics of the music they have posted to their account. The icon almost has a scale type of appearance, a concept very heavily prevalent In ancient Egypt. This idea of finding out truth, perhaps self value, is a commonality between both the ancient egyptian imagery and the modern icons used in Soundcloud. The idea that lines represent a numerical value is also something that was first introduced around these ancient alphabetical times.
It’s a challenge for the designers: linking up the title or the description with certain icon. Love your insight on the lightning icon.
Interesting comparison of the graph to scale and the meaning of self value.
I love how in depth you go into the meaning of each icon and how the the image might have been gathered through its metaphors.
I think one of the reason the Egyptians didn’t have the exact symbols to represent lightning concept is with the technology at that time, they must have hard time to actually saw lightnings. Plus, they associated it with deity’s power and not just a natural phenomena so makes sense if they carry the similar emotions rather than images.