> You don't need a label to say "Close" next to the "X" on your window
A lot of windowing systems will show a tool tip saying “Close” if you hover over that X.
Similarly, any menu items for Close (eg right clicking on the task bar) will have both text and an icon.
> Or "Play" next to a right-facing triangle in your media player.
It’s actually pretty common on hardware devices to have text accompanying those icons.
And particularly on older devices when those icons were less ingrained into everyone’s memory.
For example:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images2500x2500/coby_cvr...
> Or the word "Search" next to a text box with a magnifying glass in it
And you’d be amazed at the number of nontechnical people who struggle with that.
This is why websites designed for people of varying technical abilities, for example holiday booking sites, have text inside the search box describing what it’s used for.
For example in this picture of EBay, there is text that says “Search for anything”
https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/DwZPyw8OFhQje9EAgEVOtBpUYVM=/1...
> There is a spectrum from widely-understood symbols that don't need labels
Widely understood by who? People writing the software? Or people actually using the software? ;)
Software engineers sometimes forget that most people don’t use computers nor websites for fun and thus don’t want to learn what a bunch of pictograms mean.
Frankly, I don’t want to memorise icons either and I do use computers for fun. So there has better be some text labels available for when I’m old, eyesight going, and less comfortable with technology than I currently am.