In digital product design, icons are often treated as decorative. This means nice to have, brand-aligned and minimalist. But in the contexts of Crisis, Emergency and Risk Communication (CERC), icons are not cosmetic. They need to be functional, fast and life-saving.

Whether it is a patient in distress, a caregiver trying to administer medication or a city resident facing a sudden evacuation, icons are often the first thing a user encounters. Sometimes it is the only thing that they have time to process. If they misread it, do not notice it or hesitate even for a few seconds, the consequences could be significant.

The Stakes Involved in Using Icons Under Pressure

In CERC systems, icons must:

·       Signal urgency.

·       Offer clear, actionable next steps.

·       Reassure users that they are doing the right thing.

The challenge is that users in these scenarios are not relaxed, focused or tech-savvy. They are likely to be stressed, confused, scared and unfamiliar with the interface. This means that the icon has to do more and faster than in any typical UX context.

Consider the following:

·       An emergency call icon is rendered as a flat outline of a handset, tucked in the corner, which the user does not recognise or notice in time.

·       A warning symbol appears without a label in an evacuation scenario. What does it mean? “Get out now” or “Stay where you are”?

·       A medicine app that uses an abstract sequence of emojis, such as:

💊 ➝ 💧 ➝ 🙂 to guide a user. Without labels or context, what do these mean? The steps are unclear.

In all these cases, the failure is not in the system’s logic, but in its communication.

Where Flat Icons Fall Short

Flat design became popular for good reasons: removing clutter, speeding the experience up, looking neat and clean. However, in CERC environments, its downsides become fatal:

·       The icons might start to look too similar.

·       Important elements may not stand out.

·       Affordances disappear.

·       Interactivity becomes invisible.

In a crisis, people hesitate and second-guess. They may not see what they need or are looking for.

Designing for CERC

1.     Affordances Must Be Visible

·       Use shadows, layering and contrast to indicate what can be clicked.

·       Include tap or hover states.

·       Do not use ghost buttons (buttons that are thin and have a degree of transparency).

2.     Label Everything and Assume Nothing

·       Do not assume visual literacy of any user.

·       Every action should have a label: “Emergency Alert”, “Call for Help”, “Ask a Health Professional”.

3.     Use Motion Thoughtfully

·       Pulse animations signal urgency.

·       Tactile feedback, such as a ripple, reassures users that their action was received.

·       Do not use flash motion but use subtle and purposeful animation instead.

4.     Make Colour Work Harder

·       Red = stop/danger

·       Yellow = caution

·       Green = go/safe.

Pretest for universality. Use of colours is often culturally-bound. Combine colour with icons, shapes and labels. Do not rely on colour alone.

5.     Familiar Metaphors Beat Innovation

·       Use metaphors that are intuitive: phones, cross, clipboards, doors.

·       Do not include novelty icons when time is short and stakes are high.

·       Pretest the visual metaphors for universality: as with colour, many are culturally-bound.

The Importance of Affordance

When affordance (the visual or physical cues that suggest how an object should be interpreted and used) is not clearly communicated in a user interface, it can lead to serious usability failures. Users may overlook important actions or misinterpret visual cues, resulting in confusion, errors or task abandonment. For example, relying solely on abstract icons without labels can cause uncertainty, especially for new or stressed users who may not intuitively grasp their meanings. Similarly, using overly minimalist or flat design elements can strip away essential visual hierarchy. This can make interactive components indistinguishable from static ones. This often leads to delays, misnavigation or even app abandonment. These problems are typically resolved by enhancing visual clarity, such as adding labels, increasing contrast and providing feedback, such as hover or tap effects. These help guide the user’s behaviour and reduce cognitive load. Without such affordances, the interface risks becoming opaque and frustrating, particularly in high-stakes or time-sensitive contexts.

In CERC, blending flat clarity with subtle skeuomorphic cues, such as shadows, raised buttons and depth, enhances usability without sacrificing modern aesthetics.

Tactile realism = faster recognition.

Design for the Moment It All Goes Wrong

When the user is frightened, confused or rushing, when their brain is scrambled and focusing on weird things rather than the present danger (e.g. President Trump’s ‘let me get my shoe’ immediately after an assassination attempt), the design must catch them in these moments. Design like lives depend on it.

Thank you for reading,

Mark Gibson

Leeds, United Kingdom, June 2025