Icon design is the process of designing a graphic symbol that represents a program, function, data or collection of data on a computer system.

Because icons typically have a maximum size of 128 by 128 pixels, the challenge of icon design is to create an image of that size, that can reduce down to 12 by 12 pixels, that accurately portrays what the icon represents. Common examples of this are installer icons, which typically contain images of product installation media and a computer,thereforeshowing the rough idea of installation, or icons that involve the Internet containing a globe, now the almost universally recognized symbol for the Internet.

One of the early professional icon designers was Susan Kare, who designed many of the icons contained within the original Mac OS.