Yes. The floppy disk is an excellent icon, and it's history is distinct, important and easy to convey.
Two other icons I could think of without effort are the telephone icon and the camera icon.
Ask HN: Should we accept the “floppy disk icon” as the default save symbol?
21–30 of 42 posts
Re: Ask HN: Should we accept the “floppy disk icon” as the default save symbol?
#22Yes
Re: Ask HN: Should we accept the “floppy disk icon” as the default save symbol?
#23We should keep it. The benefit from switching is miniscule, and the value lost in continuity and recognizability is massive. I'm tired of designers chasing fads.
Imagine if those "designers" suddenly got interested in the Chinese language. - "Hey, why is the character for 'sun' so boxy? The sun is round! Let's make the character a bit rounder! New Unicode position!" - "Oh, but you forgot to remove the line in the middle, I need a new Unicode position for my variant!" - "Wait! In my newly designed font, I just replaced the original one. What do I do with the two new Unicode ch…
Ironically, there have been copious attempts at streamlining Chinese writing, the most successful attempt being simplified Chinese, so this isn't as strong a rebuttal as you'd think
Re: Ask HN: Should we accept the “floppy disk icon” as the default save symbol?
#24"Should we accept?" ... How old are you?
It's been the symbol literally since forever. There's nothing to accept.
And who is this "we" you speak of?
What kind of Narcissistic perspective is this?
Re: Ask HN: Should we accept the “floppy disk icon” as the default save symbol?
#25Did we ever need a save symbol?
I’ve used computers with GUIs for 30 years, and I can’t remember seeing it on many applications at all apart from pre-ribbon Microsoft Office. And now that the trend goes towards everything you do being implicitly saved when you do it, the need for a button with an icon is even smaller.
Re: Ask HN: Should we accept the “floppy disk icon” as the default save symbol?
#26Yes. The floppy disk is an excellent icon, and it's history is distinct, important and easy to convey. Two other icons I could think of without effort are the telephone icon and the camera icon.
Same with the "folders" icon. I bet a very large percentage of the population has never used an actual paper folder.
Re: Ask HN: Should we accept the “floppy disk icon” as the default save symbol?
#27We should kill the save feature. This is not a new idea.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080621173441/http://killsave.o...
Re: Ask HN: Should we accept the “floppy disk icon” as the default save symbol?
#28Did we ever need a save symbol? I’ve used computers with GUIs for 30 years, and I can’t remember seeing it on many applications at all apart from pre-ribbon Microsoft Office. And now that the trend goes towards everything you do being implicitly saved when you do it, the need for a button with an icon is even smaller.
Yes
The icons are as important as the keyboard shortcuts and menu items
It costs nothing (except a few pixels) to put a visual reminder on screen of something you "should do" frequently
I've watched people only ever copy/paste via right-click
Others via the buttons at the top of the window
Others via the Edit menu
And others using the keyboard shortcuts
Why make a product less usable to some people just because you know a different way to accomplish the same end-goal?
Re: Ask HN: Should we accept the “floppy disk icon” as the default save symbol?
#29Re: Ask HN: Should we accept the “floppy disk icon” as the default save symbol?
#30> People
What "people'? Who are these "people"?
> Consider the ampersand symbol "&", which is recognizable to many people who don't know the French word "et"
"et" is a lot older than French, my friend - it's from Latin