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Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore

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Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore

#121

Post by excuse-me »

hoov wrote: post #73

I'm not sure that I agree with the "Photography" examples. Even for people who haven't seen actual Polaroid cameras, the icon is clearly some sort of camera. The author finishes his argument with a quote from a recent pop song, which probably means that Polaroid pictures aren't an extremely obscure reference. Also, I bet that Instagram's early adopters know exactly what Polaroid cameras are, and the reference isn't l…

Even more bizarre is the road sign for speed cameras - it shows a camera that nobody has seen for a century

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcToxHFPJthCpR32ukk5h...

Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore

#122

Post by excuse-me »

vibrunazo wrote: post #119
libria wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have made hay about the save/floppy icon for some time. This is the 1st time I've ever realized where the term `radio button`. I've successfully used them countless times and none of my coworkers/clients has ever been confused by the term. It demonstrates to me that it doesn't matter what the icon is. What matters is convention. Nobody has to ever see the original as long as there is universal acceptance about…

Same here, I just learned why the radio buttons were called radio buttons with this article. I had never seen them, but never had a problem with them. Also, as a non native english speaker, I learned several words in english by programming. I remember seeing the word "if" out of a programming context for the first time, and I knew what it meant because I remembered of c++. :) So yes, convention is more important. Peo…

I am a native english speaker and it was only in high school I heard syntax outside the context of BASIC's "syntax error"

Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore

#123

Post by creamyhorror »

jes5199 wrote: post #31
mindstab wrote: post #21

I'd love to go to schools and get kids in groups like Or maybe they've learned all these icons and while not getting what they did mean, they understand what they mean now, like letters of a new alphabet. Like how many Asian script characters are descendants of more obvious pictograms of actions. They still have meaning even if they've evolved a bit and even changed.

that reminds me of when, in 1999, some researchers installed an internet kiosk in a poor village, and children taught themselves to use it, despite not being able to read the language. > Children invented their own vocabulary to define terms on the computer, for example, “sui” (needle) for the cursor, “channels” for websites and “damru” (Shiva’s drum) for the hourglass (busy) symbol. from http://hole-in-the-wall.com/…

This experiment made me happy. I remember times in the school computer lab when we surfed and did whatever we liked with the installed software, all during our computer literacy classes...nice to see people everywhere having at least the chance to do the same.

In another of his papers, Prof Mitra wrote about how "aspirational learning" could be conducted, in the sense of letting children watch interesting and inspiring videos from TED Talks, et al, which would inspire kids to consider what they could do for the world with dreams, technology, and hard work. I think that's absolutely a great thing to spread. In too many places people don't do new things simply because they don't realise they are possible.

Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore

#125

Post by bdunbar »

bitwize wrote: post #105
evoxed wrote: post #32

Around halfway through I jotted down a few thoughts. I like and appreciate people thinking about this sort of thing however, so I'm not saying any of this to offend. > I don't see any reason that we couldn't be storing our files in abstract squares rather than folders in the sky. ...because they're called folders, and we know how to use them? If I said, "Here, have a square," is your first instinct really to think oh…

* ...because they're called folders, and we know how to use them?* Historically they were called directories , which I would love to see a return to from the wrong and infantilizing "folders".

which I would love to see a return to from the wrong and infantilizing "folders".

Probably too late. I work with nice guys, progammers in their late 20s, mid-30s, who have only ever known those as 'folders'.

By convention at work if it's on a unix-y OS it's a directory, if Windows it's a folder. It's just easier that way.

Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore

#126

Post by moocow01 »

The problem is that if we modernized most of our iconography, a heck of a lot of things won't be able to be represented simply with something distinctive enough. This is largely due to what I'll call the merging of things into the same form largely driven by computing. For example...

Icon for a phone - rectangular screen

Icon for a TV - rectangular screen

Icon for a tablet - rectangular screen

Icon for a camera - rectangular screen (with a little dot in the corner)

Icon for a video recorder - rectangular screen (with a little dot in the corner)

Its true that most icons refer and represent a visual form of something from a decade or more ago. But what do you replace them with that will be any better when a lot of these things have no distinctive visual form anymore?

Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore

#127

Post by tomflack »

This is awfully condescending towards people in their twenties and younger.

> Want to indicate Settings or Setup to a twenty something? Show them a tool they've never used in their lives.

> If you don't know who Johnny Carson is, how could you know that this is a old-style microphone?

> No one under 30 has seen a Polaroid in years but we keep using them for icons.

We don't live in a cultural vacuum where everything that existed prior to our birth ceases to exist or be represented. We watch old movies, we watch old TV, we read old books and we see old photographs.

Some things go missing and some things stick around. The icons that stop having a useful meaning will either disappear or be transformed and some icons will come to be a somewhat abstract representation of what they do, even if they're based on things that existed in the past.

I don't understand people's obsession with telling everyone they should modernize their icons - if you think so, then you should do it. See how your users react.

Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore

#128

Post by jmsduran »

tomflack wrote: post #127

This is awfully condescending towards people in their twenties and younger. > Want to indicate Settings or Setup to a twenty something? Show them a tool they've never used in their lives. > If you don't know who Johnny Carson is, how could you know that this is a old-style microphone? > No one under 30 has seen a Polaroid in years but we keep using them for icons. We don't live in a cultural vacuum where everything t…

Actually, I find the article quite funny and thought provoking. It makes you wonder how long icons like these will remain the norm, and if they'll ever change.

Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore

#130

Post by r00fus »

bgilroy26 wrote: post #53
acheron wrote: post #40

There's a good article to be written on this subject, but this isn't it. "folders": we can go back to "directories" if you'd like. It's still what I say most of the time. "wrenches/screwdrivers/gears": This was the most baffling one. Who's never used a screwdriver? And he says it as if it's obvious. "phone": 75% of the US still has a landline (as of a year ago anyway), so I find "you haven't used this in 20 years" to…

"phone" - The shape he's talking about is this one[1]. While the Wrench/Screwdriver etc. are in common use, the shape here is from the rotary phone, which is not in common use. The page I linked was literally the first google image result for me, and that top cluster of images includes many recognizeable clip-art phones, all with the same rotary phone shape. 1. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/01/getting-the-int…

At the last two offices I've worked at, the landline phone (VOIP Handset) looked like this :[1]. Not a whole lot different from the smartphone Phone app icon.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cisco+handset&hl=en&...

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