Where Does Susan Kare Find Icon Ideas?

Susan Kare finds icon ideas by looking at restaurant signage and traffic signage from all around the world, and by beachcombing for shells and things from the natural world. She probably would not go to a book about user interface design. She thinks it may be hard to make a symbol that 100 people will all say means hurry. The kind of symbol she likes is one a person can be told once, either by somebody else or by looking it up in the manual, and then remember.

Restaurant signage, traffic signage, shells, and things from the natural world can be used as symbols because people connect with them already. A four-pointed arrow does not really have any intrinsic meaning. One telling is the bar she cares about: somebody else explains the symbol, or the meaning is looked up in the manual, and then it stays in memory.