Icons serve a crucial role in user interface (UI) design; they’re not only visually appealing but also help guide users through an application. As developers, we continuously strive to create interactive and intuitive UIs, and the use of icons significantly contributes to this objective. Among various resources, Material UI Icons have become increasingly popular for their sheer volume and impressive design consistency. This post will guide you on how to utilize Material UI Icons in your interfaces.

What are Material UI Icons?

Material UI Icons are a part of the Material-UI framework, which follows the Material Design guidelines by Google. These design principles aim to create a visual language that synthesizes classic principles of good design with innovation and technology. The Material UI Icons library offers over a thousand beautifully crafted symbols for common actions and items that you can readily use in your digital interfaces.

How to Access and Use Material UI Icons

Installation: First, we need to install the Material UI Icons package. If you’re using npm, you can install it by running the following command in your project root directory:

npm install @material-ui/icons

Alternatively, for yarn users:

yarn add @material-ui/icons

Implementation: Once the package is installed, you can import the icons directly into your components. Here’s an example using the React framework:

import React from 'react';
import { Delete as DeleteIcon } from '@material-ui/icons';

function DeleteButton() {
  return (
    <button>
      <DeleteIcon />
      Delete
    </button>
  );
}

export default DeleteButton;

In this example, we import the ‘Delete’ icon and utilize it within a ‘DeleteButton’ component. Note the renaming of the imported Delete icon as ‘DeleteIcon’. This technique avoids potential naming conflicts with other components or variables in your code.

Customizing Icons: Material UI Icons are also customizable. You can adjust the size, color, and other stylistic properties of the icons using the ‘fontSize’ and ‘style’ props.

import React from 'react';
import { Delete as DeleteIcon } from '@material-ui/icons';

function DeleteButton() {
  return (
    <button>
      <DeleteIcon fontSize="large" style={{ color: 'red' }} />
      Delete
    </button>
  );
}

export default DeleteButton;

In this example, we’ve increased the icon size using the ‘fontSize’ prop and changed its color to red using the ‘style’ prop.

A Word on Accessibility

While using icons can certainly enrich your interfaces, it is crucial to ensure that they’re accessible to all users, including those who rely on assistive technology. Always provide descriptive ‘alt’ text or use ARIA labels for your icons.

import React from 'react';
import { Delete as DeleteIcon } from '@material-ui/icons';

function DeleteButton() {
  return (
    <button>
      <DeleteIcon fontSize="large" style={{ color: 'red' }} aria-label="delete" />
      Delete
    </button>
  );
}

export default DeleteButton;

Material UI Icons offer a quick and effective way to enhance your application’s user interface, improving its aesthetics and usability. Whether you’re designing a complex dashboard or a simple mobile application, integrating these icons can dramatically improve the overall user experience.

Remember that although icons are a fantastic tool for improving visual communication, they must always be used thoughtfully, ensuring that the application remains accessible to everyone.

Reference:

• Material UI Icons Documentation