Icons, trust, and meaning
What happens when you use an icon that doesn’t match the situation? You lose meaning. And your users’ trust.
It’s not uncommon for icons to go with text, like in error messages. But sometimes icons get misused.
Icons only work if they have the same meaning every time a user sees them. For example, a trash can icon means delete. It should mean delete everywhere someone sees it. They should only have to learn the meaning once.
If this isn’t true, people must relearn the icon's meaning for every app, every website, every system. That’s a problem.
It also means people might ignore the icons if they're used wrong.
This is a dialog that asks if the user wants to perform a destructive action (deleting something) or not. The error icon isn’t appropriate here. Nothing went wrong.
Here is the modal after redesign. I asked the designer to use the more appropriate warning icon. I also rewrote the copy to reinforce the action the user is confirming.
Misusing icons also reduces user trust.