Balazs: About Antiquated Metaphors in Icons [LWN.net]

Björn Balazs reports on some surprising results from the recent LibreOffice Writer icon test, which (among other things) pitted Tango's "floppy disc" icon against Oxygen's "filing cabinet" icon for the save action. "The results are stunning. There was not the slightest problem with using the floppy disc, while the filing cabinet metaphor more or less failed [...] Even when looking at the group of young users the results do not change significantly and the antiquated floppy disc still scores a perfect 10.0." Balazs speculates on possible explanations; whatever the cause, surely additional interesting findings are still to come from this survey project.

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The phone icon on a cell phone is my favorite anachronism

Posted Dec 21, 2012 5:18 UTC (Fri) by jhhaller (guest, #56103) [Link] (2 responses)

But, how would one replace a desk phone or handset with another icon? A picture of the smartphone on the desktop isn't right. And, the idea of hanging up a phone to end a call is equally obsolete for many.

There are other categories which are on their way out, even if not there yet - a picture of an envelope for mail, a physical book for an address book, and a manila folder for the concept of a directory (which word also reflects an obsolete concept).

And then, there's the LWN icon, a penguin holding what I can only imagine is supposed to be a newspaper.

These will all likely to be around even after no one remembers the physical artifact. After all, people still "dial" phone numbers, even though most young people have never put their finger in a hole and rotated a dial clockwise. Of course, those numbers are only dialed when communicating with someone not in the phone's directory.

The phone icon on a cell phone is my favorite anachronism

Posted Dec 21, 2012 9:59 UTC (Fri) by hummassa (guest, #307) [Link]

None of the icons you mentioned is of an object so out-of-usage as a floppy disk. Desk phones, handsets, hanging up the phone, envelopes, books, manila folders, newspapers -- all those physical artifacts and actions are in current use right now, and can be found in any office around the world.

And yet, everyone knows what the floppy disk stands for. ;-)

The phone icon on a cell phone is my favorite anachronism

Posted Dec 21, 2012 17:22 UTC (Fri) by ghane (guest, #1805) [Link]

> And then, there's the LWN icon, a penguin holding what I can only imagine is supposed to be a newspaper.

It is not a newspaper, it is our grumpy editor looking inside his new Nexus 15, pried open to enable rooting.

Balazs: About Antiquated Metaphors in Icons

Posted Dec 21, 2012 20:02 UTC (Fri) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

This is a good proof that people who claim that icons are somehow 'inherently' recognizable are wrong.

people learn the icons, and after they have learned them they become 'intuitive'

changing icons from what 'everyone uses' to something that is supposed to be 'more intuitive' is almost always a bad move.

Similarly, there is a good reason to keep the user interface in general similar or the same as what people are used to. There have to be _really_ good reasons to make major changes.