Often cited by people on this website as “designers dumbing down user interfaces” but I assure you that this is easily predominantly perpetrated by “i can do UX too, I know what’s best” developers.
I say this as a developer, and as someone that’s never identified or worked on paper as a ‘designer’.
I lead a team of developers, and we usually have no designer input unfortunately. It’s all us. My team OFTEN tries to “just use an icon” for something, and I almost always pull the back from this. It seldom works. It’s almost always confusing for people. Text all the way.
“Devs doing design” are absolutely largely responsible, but on the design side of things there’s also been a tidal wave of non-UI designers who've washed onto the shores of UI/UX design in the past decade+ which I believe are just as culpable. They’re great at making UIs that look amazing on a promo page but the usability of their products leave much to be desired.
I say this as a developer, and as someone that’s never identified or worked on paper as a ‘designer’.
I lead a team of developers, and we usually have no designer input unfortunately. It’s all us. My team OFTEN tries to “just use an icon” for something, and I almost always pull the back from this. It seldom works. It’s almost always confusing for people. Text all the way.