The famous “hamburger” menu icon isn’t as new as you may have assumed

Did you know that the famous “hamburger” menu icon is older than smartphones, older than websites, and, as a matter of chronology, even older than the internet itself?1

The three-lined button, so ubiquitous in mobile and web interfaces, first appeared on the Xerox Star computer in 1981. Designer Norm Cox created the icon to represent a list menu. He chose three stacked bars as a simple, recognisable symbol for hidden options. Soon after, early Xerox users likened it to a hamburger. That’s how the famous “hamburger” icon name came to be. Decades later, the same icon became a design staple in apps, proving the longevity of a good UI idea.

Today, we have many alternatives to the hamburger icon, each representing hidden options, menus, and gateways to more content, but the “hamburger” icon remains the special one. Perhaps because of its appetising name.