Origins of Common UI Symbols, an Infographic

Symbols are a major part of user interface design, but most of us would be hard pressed to know where they came from. We know that the play symbol means play and the power symbol turns things on and off.

Another common symbol is the @. Until 1885, the @ was on keyboards of accountants and used to designate at the rate of. In 1971, Raymon Tomlinson changed that meaning when he used it to separate the name of the user and their network address in the programming office of Berenek & Newman.

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