Bad UX: the case of the ambiguous magnifying glass

The first thing they teach on Day One of UX/UI Designer School has to be, “Don’t make the same icon in your UI mean two different things.” Surely, no one would ever actually do that? Especially not at a world-class software company like Adobe?

Sadly, the makers of Adobe Premiere Pro committed this sin. Behold:

And to look at the relevant parts of the UI closer:

So, we see that a magnifying glass with its handle to the left is for searching, whereas a magnifying glass with its handle to the right is for zooming. At least they made the handles point different ways! Still, with all the buttons in this application, it’s pretty easy to get them mixed up. Tool-tips shouldn’t have to save your application from being confusing.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m generally a satisfied customer of the Adobe Creative Cloud. And yes, this clumsiness in the UI isn’t the end of the world. Clearly, though, we can do better. My own suggestion would be to use a binoculars icon for the search function.