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The best icon is a text label

thomasbyttebier.be

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Re: The best icon is a text label

#141

Post by the8472 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #36
roywiggins wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tooltips aren't going to be much help on mobile though.

> Tooltips aren't going to be much help on mobile though. Not today , but if pressure sensitive touch becomes a widespread thing, distinguishing the "hover"/"click" distinction could be a thing on touch interfaces as well -- bringing back some of the depth of interaction that touch has lost with comparison to desktop.

I recall there also being experimental touch sensors that can detect your finger hovering over the screen. That way one could move the cursor (hover) without clicking.

Re: The best icon is a text label

#142

Post by emblem21 »

gotchange wrote: post #100
CamperBob2 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, OK. Those damn foreign imperialists again, always oppressing our hieroglyphics. I'm out. This thread is 200TB of crazy on a 10TB drive.

I'm afraid that the only one not making any sense on this thread is you. We didn't drop the use of our indigenous writing system in favor of that of the Romans or the Arabs because we thought that theirs are superior than ours, we dropped them because we were conquered and dominated and we had to adopt the cultural norms of the invaders. Also, you're EXTREMELY overestimating the individual agency of the ancient Egypt…

Colonial conquest is not the primary methodology of linguistic propagation. Trade is.

English is the primary programming language, not because a team of dedicated Anglo-Saxons are pointing rifles as the head of brown people, but because American trade provides the most profit motive between 1974-2008.

Re: The best icon is a text label

#144

Post by the8472 »

gotchange wrote: post #93
dizzystar wrote: post #27

I remember getting into a debate about this subject with a self-described UI expert. It was part enlightening and part frustrating. He failed to see the point that so many of his ideas were US-centric, and didn't make sense in any context outside of English-speaking languages, and to be honest, they barely made sense in English. The author brings up Gmail, which has an icon for "archive" that makes zero sense no matt…

> Even Facebook is using text, The problem with the text-only approach is that you can't change the layout or the names of the functions visible to the user in your app or you'd face a severe backlash or blowout from your user. But in the case of icons, you could still move things around and the user would find it less demanding to locate the new place of the function by identifying the pictogram quickly taking into…

> or you'd face a severe backlash or blowout from your user.

https://xkcd.com/1172/

UIs undergo changes, them staying the same for all eternity is not a promise anyone wants to make.

Re: The best icon is a text label

#145

Post by jd3 »

Cyberdog wrote: post #129
jd3 wrote: post #60

I agree. Whenever the option to change icons to text labels is available, I will use it. It's a shame that Apple's finder is ostensibly shit when it comes to text label support. No forward, no change/shadow when `pressed`, etc. It's been maddening trying to use most websites these days that load 20MB of javascript and abstract their interface elements behind incomprehensible picons and boxes. http://i.imgur.com/YyOYq…

I have no idea what that screenshot is of, but it sure as hell ain't the proper Finder. Maybe it's a look-alike skin for Gnome or something?

I have skinned my OS X install with custom fonts[0], traffic lights[1], and icons[2][3].

[0]: https://github.com/dtinth/YosemiteAndElCapitanSystemFontPatc...

[1]: https://github.com/alexzielenski/ThemeEngine

[2]: http://freemacsoft.net/liteicon/

[3]: https://www.xs4all.nl/~ronaldpr/emaculation/Mac_Icons_and_Te...

as you can see, I'm obviously a SCARY elite hacker that should not be messed with ;)

http://i.imgur.com/bl5hdAN.png

Re: The best icon is a text label

#146

Post by aninhumer »

lazerwalker wrote: post #21
adevine wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I see a pushback against icon-only buttons, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the mobile space is changing so rapidly that things don't have a chance to "settle down" like they did for previous technologies. I mean, I don't think it's inherently obvious that a triangle pointing to the right means play, a square means stop, and a circle means record. However, it didn't take cassette players and VCR…

I feel like the hamburger button is a special example, since the fact that your mobile app has a "here's where we shoved the features we couldn't fit in anywhere else" menu is usually a smell that you have deeper design issues at the information architecture level.

I'd much rather apps include a menu of extra features that don't quite fit into their interface paradigm, rather than omit them until they can find the One True Interface that can incorporate them all.

Or even worse, make the common case harder just so the interface can include all the features.

Re: The best icon is a text label

#147

Post by kqr »

JFlash wrote: post #41
brenschluss wrote: post #17

> Don’t use an icon if its meaning isn’t a 100% clear to everyone. When in doubt, skip the icon. Reside to simple copy. A text label is always clearer. The article is misguided, in that it assumes that the meaning of an icon only exists in the lines/color/visual form of the icon. Icons are visual language . You have to teach the user what the icon means. Either the user has seen the icon before (such as in airports),…

Great comment. This reasoning is probably intuitive to anyone who's familiar with a logographic writing system. I feel like you can also draw a parallel with programming languages. Consider: def sum1(array) sum = 0 array.each { |e| sum += e } sum end def sum2(array) array.reduce(:+) end sum2 isn't just a different way to write the same thing. It's a construct that expresses a specific pattern of evaluation and aggreg…

> red means cancel/go back/stop/error. This is something that was learned, not something that was known by instinct.

Well...[1][2] There are some precedents for red being a no-go colour even in nature. Which is likely why we use it as a stop colour. It would be interesting if someone knows of a significant number of cultures that use it as a "go ahead" colour. I mean, the samples are probably skewed because everyone has been a colony these days but still.

[1]: http://www.noaa.gov/features/resources_0109/images/fire1.jpg [2]: http://museumvictoria.com.au/spidersparlour/images/en000008....

Re: The best icon is a text label

#148

Post by fuck_google »

ploxiln wrote: post #62
dizzystar wrote: post #27

I remember getting into a debate about this subject with a self-described UI expert. It was part enlightening and part frustrating. He failed to see the point that so many of his ideas were US-centric, and didn't make sense in any context outside of English-speaking languages, and to be honest, they barely made sense in English. The author brings up Gmail, which has an icon for "archive" that makes zero sense no matt…

I don't think this is "zero empathy for the end-user", I think this is desperation. As companies and "product managers" get more statistical data on real-world clicks and usage and do more usability studies, they see that 90% of users don't know how to do anything. And they get desperate to "fix" that. They go for drastic re-designs, get rid of all the text because "nobody" reads it, hide all the features because the…

Seems like a plausible explanation to why and how Google and Facebook come up with ever more crappy designs that hurt usability. Google Docs comes to mind as a prime example of a service that seems to have gone nowhere in years as far as productivity is concerned.

Re: The best icon is a text label

#149

Post by omnibrain »

derefr wrote: post #74
jimmaswell wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling the start button a travesty is ridiculous. The start menu is a useful and appropriate menu where programs and other shortcuts are listed that nobody really has a problem with outside contrived complaints on the internet that were made for the sake of complaining. The real travesty was the abrasive and confusing replacement they made for it in Windows 8.

You weren't around for the release of Windows 95, I take it. The OS tried very hard to point out that you have to click the start button to, well, start doing things—but people usually just Didn't Get It anyway until someone guided them through the process. Probably the best thing Microsoft could have done back then was make a little pseudo-video† walkthrough, showing people what's in the Start Menu and what happens…

> Probably the best thing Microsoft could have done back then was make a little pseudo-video† walkthrough, showing people what's in the Start Menu and what happens when you click on a few of the items in there. They did that. Windows 95 came with a whole bunch of tutorials. IIRC they worked like you describe. There was also the notorious "Tip of the day" via the welcome.exe.

Re: The best icon is a text label

#150

Post by Dylan16807 »

Cyberdog wrote: post #105
josho wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Start button is where you go to start a program. Hamburger button is where you go when you've tried everything else.. I.e. It's a placeholder for random stuff which is why it's bad design.

> Start button is where you go to start a program. Or to shut down the computer.

Start button is where you go to initiate an action.

I hate this joke.

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