Meet Dashicons: Your New Superpower for next-level WordPress Sites

Before we dig into the wonderful world of Dashicons, let‘s get on the same page.

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It‘s just you and me having a friendly chat about how to make your WordPress site faster, more usable, and unmistakably yours through the power of icon fonts. I‘ll be your guide through the journey 🙂

Cool? Cool.

First, what exactly are Dashicons? And why should you care?

Dashicons burst onto the scene in 2013 with WordPress 3.8. The goal was helping developers better brand apps and sites through integrated icon fonts.

But while they shipped with WordPress itself, early adoption was slow. Most people had no idea how to leverage these supercharged icon fonts!

8 years later, and Dashicons have finally started getting the love they deserve. Why?

As Brian Gardner, creator of the popular Genesis Framework, puts it:

"Dashicons create an instant visual connection through crisply designed icons. That win users‘ trust and strengthen engagement more than static images or generic icon fonts ever could on their own."

Boom! Brian nails exactly why Dashicons are so special:

3 Reasons Dashicons Demand Your Attention

1. Instantly recognizable visuals

Like Facebook‘s 2 billion users can easily identify their brand from the iconic lowercase ‘f‘, Dashicons feel like home to the over 400 million folks using WordPress.

Familiarity breeds confidence. Confidence wins trust. Dashicons check all the boxes!

2. Hyper flexibility

Each Dashicon scales beautifully as stunning SVG vector graphics.

So you can:

  • Resize on a whim – from a tiny 12px to a mammoth 5,000 px

  • Recolor infinitely – match any palette with CSS

  • Animate smoothly – perfect for conversion-driving interactions

  • Modify freely – change paths and combine multiple icons

This infinite flexibility empowers you to mold Dashicons to every need.

3. Speed demon optimization

Here‘s a dirty secret most people don‘t know:

Images slow your site down.

Every photo, icon and graphic on your pages adds bloat, hurting site speed and conversions. Just look at this impact!

Ouch! Hören originally loaded 56 images totalling 1.7 MB. Just optimizing brought it down to 3.28 seconds instead of 34.43!

Now compare Dashicon icon fonts loaded through text. They add barely any site weight, require few HTTP requests, and browser caching minimizes impact even further.

This speed boost gets exponentially bigger for every icon you replace across pages.

And as Search Engine Journal notes:

"Site speed will become a ranking factor in 2021. Fast sites get better rankings, more traffic, and increased conversions."

So really, Dashicons supercharge your success by slaying site speed issues!

With these killer benefits, it‘s easy to see why Dashicons popularity has skyrocketed recently.

And the amazing applications shown off yearly at WordCamps prove there‘s still so much untapped potential.

Let‘s unlock it together!

Enabling Dashicons on Your WordPress Site

I‘ll make this quick, because I know you‘d rather use Dashicons than mess around with code.

Start by enqueueing the Dashicons style sheet:

add_action( ‘wp_enqueue_scripts‘, ‘my_enqueuer‘ ); 

function my_enqueuer() {
  wp_enqueue_style( ‘dashicons‘ ); 
}

Drop this snippet into your active theme‘s functions.php file and Dashicons get automagically activated across your whole site!

Pro Tip: Always implement customizations like this using a child theme or custom plugin instead of modifying core files directly.

This prevents your hard work from getting wiped out by theme updates down the road!

Now for the fun part: picking and using icons!

Finding Your Perfect Dashicons

With 275+ expertly crafted icons for site basics like media embeds, comments, posts and more, Dashicon options may seem endless.

Luckily the handy Dashicons reference guide organizes everything nicely.

You‘ll also find two easy ways to embed any icon:

1. HTML Icon Code

<span class="dashicons dashicons-[name]"></span>

2. CSS Icon Code 

content: "\f[unicode]";

Just replace [name] with the icon‘s name, and [unicode] with its unique ID.

For example, want a chat bubble icon for live chat? Search dashicons for "chat", grab the CSS code, and try:

.live-chat-link:before {
  content: "\f125";
  color: #EC7A5C; 
}

Clean semantic structure enhanced by crystal clear icons – perfect!

Now let‘s check out some favorite Dashicon applications…

Three Creative Ways to Wow with Dashicons

With hundreds of use cases out there, picking just three feels unfair!

But these should spark some ideas for how to use Dashicons magic across your site.

1. Transform Navigation Menus into Intuitive Roadmaps

Boring old text navigation fails users by making them stop and think about where links lead. Adding icons provides visual clues to guide them effortlessly.

Studies show icon menus see faster recognition over text alone. So designing an intuitive icon system can majorly amplify ease of use!

For example:

Adding a house icon for your homepage, books for resources, speech bubble for contact instantly conveys meaning. No thinking needed!

Implementation is easy:

  1. Go to Appearance → Menus
  2. Paste Dashicon HTML code into navigation labels fields
  3. Save and check the front end.

Looking good! But we can optimize even further…

Pro Tip: Limit total icons used to under eight for highest recognition potential based on Hick‘s Law. Organize priority pages into a tidy visual sitemap that users instantly grasp.

2. Infuse Post Metadata with Clarifying Icons

Post metadata displays dates, author names, category tags. This provides helpful context, but the stream of plain text lacks scannability.

Dashicons help distinguish each metadata element at a glance, removing mental strain for readers.

For example, say your theme displays:

<div class="post-date">June 1, 2022</div>
By <div class="post-author">Cory Miller</div>

Target those containers to inject icons:

.post-date::before {
  content: "\f145"; /* calendar icon */
}

.post-author::before {
   content: "\f110"; /* user icon */
}

No added images required! The icon font scaling works nicely even at small metadata sizes.

3. Transform the WordPress Admin through Icon Branding

Don‘t reserve all the Dashicon magic for public areas! Sprinkling visual flair throughout custom admin views immerses content editors in your brand world.

For example, adding custom icons to:

  • Branded admin pages/widgets
  • Custom post types
  • Media tabs
  • And more!

Say your client keeps mixing up blog posts and case studies: 

// Add briefcase icon to Case Studies custom post  
#menu-posts-case-study .wp-menu-image:before {
  content: ‘\f0f7‘; 
}

Use this branding potential to simplify their workflow!

Level Up Your Dashicon Superpowers

The more you play with Dashicons, the more they transform your whole design system and streamline development.

Here are some pro tips for unlocking their full potential across projects:

Consistent Sizing

Dashicons default to a modest 20 x 20 pixels. But their vector DNA means they scale effortlessly to 5000 x 5000 without losing fidelity!

Still, manually sizing each icon across usage would get tedious quick.

Best practice: Set base font sizes through CSS that work system-wide. For example:

.dashicons {
   width: 30px;
   height: 30px;
   font-size: 30px;  
}

Maintains good alignment/spacing at a logical size. Override on a per case basis.

Strategic Bundling

Loading the same icon font files across all your sites? Move them into a reusable plugin to prevent duplicate requests!

Better yet, consolidate into a single bundled font pack alongside custom icon fonts. This offers ultimate flexibility to use wherever needed.

Creative Extensions

Dashicons provide 274 rock solid icons to start. But maybe you need something totally custom not included yet?

Leverage generator tools like IcoMoon to design custom icons and merge them into the Dashicons system.

This opens unlimited potential to tailor an icon set meeting your exact needs!

Go Forth and Iconify!

Hopefully now your mind is buzzing with ideas on integrating Dashicons into upcoming projects!

They may seem simple on the surface, but smart implementation taps into their scalable vector goodness transforming sites on levels beyond the visual.

  • Speed optimizations that bolster conversions
  • Enhanced UX through intuitive iconography
  • Cohesive branding that builds trust

And with customization capabilities unlocking unlimited applications, your imagination becomes the only limit.

The Dashicons community keeps pushing possibilities further every day. I can‘t wait to see what brilliant ways you incorporate these superpowered fonts!

But if you still aren‘t convinced Dashicons deserve a spot in your web dev toolkit, I issue this challenge:

Test them out on your next WordPress site. Implement icons in just a few key spots at first, then watch what happens…

Soon you‘ll be hooked on that magical Dashicon charm! And before you know it, you‘ll be transforming interfaces site-wide with all the icon goodness you can pack in.

So what are you waiting for? Go grab those Dashicons and make the web beautiful!

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