Dave Gilbert: "usability being more important than aesthetics" suggests an opposition that isn't really there. Aesthetics is part of usability; for some research and examples of this, see <http://www.alistapart.com/articles/indefenseofeyecandy>.
antistress: I don't see how adding an icon could ever effectively communicate "don't look at this, it's probably not what you want". If you were trying to de-emphasize a particular item, it would need to be visually less (e.g. smaller text, greyer text), not more.
Dave Gilbert: "usability being more important than aesthetics" suggests an opposition that isn't really there. Aesthetics is part of usability; for some research and examples of this, see <http:// www.alistapart. com/articles/ indefenseofeyec andy>.
antistress: I don't see how adding an icon could ever effectively communicate "don't look at this, it's probably not what you want". If you were trying to de-emphasize a particular item, it would need to be visually less (e.g. smaller text, greyer text), not more.