I chose a social software “Instagram”. I think the most classic example is “Search”. It looks like a magnifying glass, which aims to guide users to discover something. At the same time, it is very direct, combining the magnifying glass for discovery with search.
For the symbol to compare with it, I chose the “eye” in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is usually associated with gods in ancient Egypt, expressing sacred characteristics, and usually contains many metaphors, such as rights and supervision.
By comparing these two, I think their common point is that they both express meanings with objects, but ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs usually have deeper metaphors, and modern icons are generally designed to make people understand faster, so that people can associate faster. For example, the current “user” icon mostly uses a simple human figure, but in ancient Egypt, “house” generally refers to temples and more sacred places. This is their difference.
