Pharaoh Namur’s armor joint plate should be the earliest hieroglyphics. At that time, people did not have the vocabulary that is now flooded. The only way to leave a cultural imprint is to abstract concrete things, so it also forms itself. A culture. Compared with the Sumerian alphabet and Mayan pictography, Egyptian hieroglyphics is closer to the icons we use now. They all use simple lines and shapes. The meaning they want to express clearly and easily.
The connection between the icon and the reflected object is realized through meaning. The meaning of an icon is to establish a connection between human life and meaning. The successful iconography allows users to easily understand the meaning they want to express. This reflects the importance of the designer’s ability to observe and understand. If an icon can be used by all users without any doubt, then it is successful.
The most common method of iconography is simulating objects. Let us give an example such as Figma.
It is not difficult for us to understand the meaning of these two eyes during the use of Figma’s products. It shows the difference between “visible” and “invisible” in the method closest to the user. Even if this icon does not add any text notes, it can be easily understood by users.
In the picture above, we can see that Egyptian hieroglyphics also have hieroglyphs similar to eyes.
The most similar between Egyptian hieroglyphics and iconography is that they both use simple lines and shapes so that humans can more directly receive the meaning they want to convey. Although they exist in completely irrelevant times, they all want to express rich meaning with simple graphics. To help people make their lives easier, this is the meaning of design.
Your first couple of sentences don’t really make sense to the rest of your thoughts. I think Anh is right about the eye – consider if in Egyptian it means god or goddess – how does the eye in Figma relate or does it? It might be better to consider the contrast and how the symbol has become more iconic and representational rather than symbolic, needing to be interpreted.
Wow! Never think about that there might be connections between eye and the meaning of convey. I totally agree that the necessity to mak our users’ lives easier. Simplicity should be easy to understand even without any explanation.
The eye is one of the most well known hieroglyphics since it had significant meanings: and of course it’s god and goddess. Even the left eye or right have completely different meanings and only clear to whom studied them. The modern icon is way more universal and simpler.