Sploink Daily just shared their take on the hamburger icon via Facebook: 
Reimagined, yes.
1 Like
Haha. The thing is, it wasn’t ever meant to be a hamburger. It was meant to be a menu!
Reminds me of the symbol for heaven 
I do not think the hamburger icon we have today really denotes a menu. It is more a convention that we all associate the icon with a navigation which is hidden by default and shows when you click on the icon.
It is wide spread now due to the expansion of mobile responsive sites.
http://exisweb.net/menu-eats-hamburger
Prefer menu label and a downward arrow.
Here’s one my Aunt sent to me in an email.
5 Likes
MS Sharepoint uses the ellipses and it has confused my users for awhile. Sharepoint also uses the cog wheel for its settings menu. It has also left users asking “where did my settings go”. But like anything else, they get used to icons and symbols. I would opt to use responsive css media queries and only use icons when necessary. If you have screen real estate use it.
I remember when the RSS icon first appeared. Until then the icons had “RSS” text and it was obvious that that was what they were. I didn’t like the icon, but it took hold and over time I got used to it.
I was thinking about this topic recently, and came to the conclusion that we’re only adding to confusion by using any other icon, and can learn a lot from road signs.
1 Like
Yes, because these are clear as day 
2 Likes
Haha, true DaveMaxwell. I had a link out to an article where I explained the virtue of roadsigns but the mods thought it inappropriate.
I guess what I’m trying to push forward is that because the key road signs are always consistent, nobody has any excuse for misinterpreting them. The problem we have in UI land is that too many designers are searching for an individual answer, when the real solution for mass understanding is consistency.
Personally I’d argue to the hills that the hamburger icon is the most widely understood symbol for a navigation toggle, so we should all go with it. Those who don’t understand won’t be long understanding.
20 years ago would anyone have looked at an envelope icon and thought “email”?
That’s a valid point - we can argue semantics on what’s best all day, and it probably isn’t the hamburger icon, but have we already passed the point of no return, so to speak, and we should just batten down the hatches and weather out the nay-saying and tears over it? Maybe so.
hmm, I guess I’m in the minority here:
The first time I saw the ‘hamburger’ icon, I knew exactly what it implied, and I found it was clever – ‘The menu’s now so small, that it’s lines!’
It’s sort of like drawing a cartoon or something, and your character is reading a newspaper which is drawn so small in the frame that you just imply the newsprint with little, jaggedy lines.
Come to think of it, I can’t remember the first website I saw ‘the hamburger’ on, but I do remember it was while playing with someone’s responsive website by scaling down the browser window on my desktop computer.
lol, I just used it. looks in my app.
good idea.
Haha, our surroundings gives us so many inspiration.
There is one on this site and I didn’t know what it stood for…
I think it is completely UN-intuitive, and anything has to be better than it.
If it had bullet points to the left then it would make sense to me.
Or if it had 1), 2), 3) - that is a list!
Even if someone figures out you mean “List”, then the next question is “List of what?!”
That may be where it fails the most…
Sorry for digging this topic up, but I just created an Icon for a food/diet information site and thought about this thread.
Looks like a hamburger I wouldn’t mind being able to eat, but can’t at the moment for heart/health reasons.
The only menu that anyone would probably think of is the one at McDonalds or Burger King though…
3 Likes
I LIKE that!
Why - neither of those places sell proper hamburgers.
1 Like