Icons (NHS Digital Service Manual)
The NHS digital service manual’s icon styles page: a small, user-tested icon set, where each icon is used, and guidance on color, size, and accessibility.
License: Open Government Licence v3.0 — https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ (stated in the page’s own footer).
Key points
- The set is deliberately small: icons “we know our users need and understand,” used to mark important parts of a page and highlight things users should do. Each icon is tied to a specific component. For example, the left and right arrows belong to pagination alongside “Previous page”/“Next page” labels, and the tick and cross sit under “Do” and “Don’t” headings.
- Use icons sparingly, and not for decoration.
- A search icon used without a visible text label must still have an accessible name, such as “Search”.
- Icon colors often change with context and state (hover, focus, active), and every color used must meet WCAG 2.2’s non-text contrast criterion (1.4.11).
- Any icon used as a button needs a target of at least 24px by 24px, or another way to perform the same action.
- The icons were tested in context, inside components on a full page rather than on their own, and found to be understood.