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The user is allowed to enter an address. After that he is (next to other information) shown the direct airline distance to that place.

I just can't come up with an icon that fulfills following:

  • this is not a routing distance
  • this is the direct flying connection
  • this has nothing to do with airplanes
  • takes up very small space

Any ideas would be appreciated.

EDIT: I'm sorry if this came off wrong. I really expected there to already be an icon for this, but I can't find one. Also I don't want to have anybody do my work for me. I'm just stuck, because I can't come up with something clever for this disambiguation.

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  • I would think circle with a single parabolic path in a dotted line would do the trick. However, I'm voting to close because this is a brainstorming question.
    – Ryan
    Jan 31, 2014 at 20:04
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    Out of curiosity, what did your final solution look like?
    – Brendan
    Mar 5, 2015 at 18:22
  • Sadly the feature this is related to never made it into the product :( So the icon never made it past a place-holder. .. But for what it's worth: I really enjoyed the ideas, so thanks!!
    – fancy
    Mar 6, 2015 at 15:03

3 Answers 3

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I know you said that the icon does not have to utilize an airplane, but if we are talking about airline miles, I was thinking it might work anyway. I found a few images that might spark the creativity genius in your quest for an icon composition. Maybe try checking these out:

Shows a map and ruler:

enter image description here

Shows a map and GPS pin:

enter image description here

Hope some of those might help you out. Good luck!

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  • Shows a plane with a tail (indicating travel): link Shows a plane with a straight line tail (indicating a direct flight path/distance): link
    – Matt Legler
    Jan 31, 2014 at 19:08
  • Thanks, a ruler might do the trick, because you can only measure something straight with a ruler. But I'll wait a day or two until I'll mark yours as correct to not discourage others.
    – fancy
    Feb 1, 2014 at 16:45
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With apologies for my rough sketches and webcam photo of said sketches:

possible distance sketches

Three of these are illustrating the same idea: Pins, markers, or dots representing points A and B, and something to connect them like a dotted line or an arrow.

If your audience is using the Latin alphabet and if "traveling from point A to point B" is a phrase used outside of English, you could do something with the letters.

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I associate the saying (UK) 'As the crow flies' to indicate a straight line distance between A and B. Maybe incorporate a crow in the icon??

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    I'm german and even though I have decent english skills I did not know that, so it probably won't work on an international basis. But thanks.
    – fancy
    Feb 3, 2014 at 14:33
  • True. That saying is very British.
    – Toothbrush
    Mar 1, 2014 at 16:36

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