We used to call this Mystery Meat navigation: just symbols or pictures without words. I still hate icons standing on their own, unless they're extremely clear

We used to call this Mystery Meat navigation: just symbols or pictures without words. I still hate icons standing on their own, unless they're extremely clear and unambiguous. Even then, they'll be unclear and ambiguous to someone out there. Just add a label. Even when we've been skeptical that words wouldn't fit in with our design, that they'd clutter or confuse; we've always found a way to make the labels fit in, and our usability has been much improved for it. People simply don't ask questions anymore—it worked better than we could have hoped.