UX Glossary · A
Avatar
Also: Profile picture · User icon
A small image or initials standing in for a person, used to identify who did what.
An avatar is the small graphic representing a person in an interface: a photo, initials, or a generated shape. The word comes from Sanskrit, describing a deity’s earthly incarnation, and entered computing through 1980s online worlds.
What it is actually for
Avatars do identification work. In a comment thread, a shared document or an activity feed, they let a reader tell contributors apart faster than reading names, because an image is recognised more quickly than a word is read.
That only holds when avatars are distinguishable. Twelve people from the same company, all using the default grey silhouette, carry no information at all. Initials on a colour derived from the name are usually better than a generic placeholder for exactly this reason.
Accessibility and privacy
An avatar is decorative when the person’s name sits next to it, so its alt text should be empty rather than duplicating the name for screen reader users. When the avatar is the only identification, the name belongs in the alt text.
Worth remembering that a profile photo is personal data. Making one mandatory is a real imposition on users who would rather not publish their face at work.