Standardised nowhere
24 conventionsThe informal conventions everybody ships, measured against every standard this site holds.
The finding. Fifteen of twenty-four conventions are named by no standard at all — not in the Authoring Practices, not backed by a native primitive, not mentioned in WCAG. The logo that goes home, the gear that opens settings, the asterisk that means required: load-bearing folklore.
Standing
Named where
| Convention | What it means | In the APG | Native primitive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asterisk marks required | A star means the field cannot be empty. | no | — |
| Cmd-K opens a palette | A keystroke opens a searchable command list. | no | — |
| Floppy disk means save | An obsolete storage medium means commit. | no | — |
| Gear means settings | A cog opens configuration. | no | — |
| Heart means favourite | A heart marks or saves an item. | no | — |
| Logo top-left goes home | The mark in the corner is a link to the root. | no | — |
| Magnifier means search | A lens icon opens or focuses a search field. | no | — |
| Pencil means edit | A pencil enters an editing mode. | no | — |
| Pull to refresh | Dragging past the top reloads the list. | no | — |
| Red means destructive | Colour alone signals irreversibility. | no | — |
| Shake means invalid | Motion signals a rejected entry. | no | — |
| Skeletons mean loading | Grey shapes stand in for content not yet there. | no | — |
| Slash focuses search | Pressing / jumps to the search field. | no | — |
| Swipe left to delete | A lateral drag reveals a destructive action. | no | — |
| Trash means delete | A bin icon destroys the object. | no | — |
| Bell means notifications | A bell shows pending alerts. | named | — |
| Blue underline is a link | Colour and underline together mean navigable. | named | <a> |
| Breadcrumbs show position | A trail states where you are in a hierarchy. | named | — |
| Escape closes the top layer | The key dismisses the frontmost thing. | named | — |
| Hamburger means menu | Three stacked lines open the navigation. | named | — |
| Infinite scroll | Content loads as you approach the end. | named | — |
| Three dots mean more | An ellipsis reveals secondary actions. | named | — |
| Toast then vanishes | A brief message confirms and disappears. | named | — |
| X top-right closes | A cross in the corner dismisses the layer. | named | — |
Source. measured against this site’s own collections · — · retrieved 2026-07-31. This collection is derived · audited.