Icon Button

Triggers an action and visually communicates interactivity and importance.

Healthy
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Healthy
Published: December 02, 2024
Updated: September 26, 2025

Overview

Icon button - overview

Key features

  • Emphasis Levels: Available in high, medium, low, and lower emphasis.
  • Size Options: Available in multiple sizes to adapt to different layouts and touch targets.
  • Shape Options: Offers two shapes – circular and square.
  • Accessibility: Fully keyboard navigable and screen-reader accessible.

Anatomy

Icon button - anatomy
  1. Icon: Visual representation of the action.
  2. Container: Shows shape and size.

Look and feel

States

States define how the component behaves and appears in different interactions:

  • Default: The standard appearance when inactive
  • Hover: Highlights the field when the user hovers over it
  • Focus: Indicates active input with a visible focus indicator.
  • Active: Visually represents the moment of user activation - click or tap.
  • Disabled: Prevents interaction and input, appearing visually subdued.
  • Read-only: Displays content without allowing edits while maintaining a standard appearance.

Emphasis

Supports four emphasis levels – high, medium, low, and lower – to adapt visual hierarchy based on context. Each level adjusts background, border, and icon color to reflect priority.

Icon button - emphasis

Sizes

Icon button - sizes

Shape

Icon button - shapes

Best Practice

Do
  • Use icon buttons for quick, recognisable actions without requiring a label
  • Choose universally understood icons to reduce ambiguity
Do

Provide accessible labels for screen readers and tooltips

Do

Use emphasis and placement to signal importance or frequency of use

Don't

Avoid using unfamiliar or ambiguous icons without tooltips

Don't
  • Don’t overload interfaces with too many icon buttons in close proximity

The Figma file holds the latest UI designs, while the Web Component, Blazor, Angular, React, and VueJS links offer a live demo of components in various states, themes, and interactions.

Figma component

Webcomponent

Blazor

Angular

React

VueJS


Feedback

Have feedback, an idea, or a bug to report? Head over to our Contributions page.