In product design, user familiarity is a superpower. When a user sees a magnifying glass, their brain instantly thinks 'Search'. When they see a gear, they think 'Settings'.
A dangerous pitfall occurs when designers attempt to be overly clever:
Jakob's Law of Internet User Experience:
'Users spend most of their time on other sites.'
This means users expect your icons to mean what they mean everywhere else. Respect established industry metaphors for utility navigation, and reserve creative expression for branded marketing illustrations.
Level 4 · Component Architecture & Visual Language