Seems more like a re-render than a re-design...
Redesigning the hotel icon
21–30 of 33 posts
Re: Redesigning the hotel icon
#22Maybe worth noting that there isn't actually a "hotel" pictogram -- rather it's the "hotel information" pictogram with the information part cut out.
Re: Redesigning the hotel icon
#23Its very hard to show a hotel as an icon, particularly as a building. We did it by showing a building with signage of a bed (showing a similar design to the cleartrip icon). People are used to seeing a bed and making the association. So going with a simpler icon without the building also conveys the same meaning as a hotel.
this blog post shows the subtly and intricate details required in good design and UI.
Re: Redesigning the hotel icon
#24You're better off with the park service icon. The new design is unnaturally squared off at the foot and the spacing between the sleeper's body and bed results in ambivalence and muddiness.
I agree. I think their new design looks more like a tractor than a person in a bed.
Re: Redesigning the hotel icon
#25Just use text.
There's really something to this. The original symbols needed to be universally understood because they were intended to be used on signs, which are obviously a static medium. The web and apps can be tailored to the observer's language preference. Maybe a universal symbol isn't necessary here.
Re: Redesigning the hotel icon
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
The hotel-building icon to me looks too ambiguous. Is this representing a city? An apartment complex? An office building? I think the bed icon clearly demonstrates what you use a hotel for - a place to sleep. This encompasses hotels that aren't several stories tall as well.
In the context of flight / hotel / car / etc., I think hotel-building is very clear. In fact, much clearer than a bed -- after all, having an airline seat represent a plane would be quite confusing, and having a bed represent a hotel is no clearer. However, outside the context of other reservation-related icons, I agree that the "building" icon is lacking in specificity. The bed icon is slightly better, but still by…
> having an airline seat represent a plane would be quite confusing, and having a bed represent a hotel is no clearer
The distinction here is that you don't get in an airplane to sit in the seats, you get in an airplane so it can fly somewhere with you in it, and the shape of an airplane is very good at conveying that. With a hotel, I don't go there so I can admire the building, I go there so I have somewhere to sleep.
Re: Redesigning the hotel icon
#27If we wanted to use it, is your new bed icon released under an open license?
We hadn't thought of releasing the icon, but we're quite happy to do that for the community to use. We'll try and do that shortly.
Re: Redesigning the hotel icon
#28Just use text.
@nerd_in_rage -- we originally started with purely text as an approach. You can see one of our older blog posts here where we talk about the simplicity and clarity afforded by "Just use text":
http://blog.cleartrip.com/2007/03/10/a-picture-says-a-thousa...
Over time, however, we changed our minds a little bit. And we were driven, in no small part, by the rapid shift to web consumption on post-PC devices. We explained our thinking in another blog post:
http://blog.cleartrip.com/2011/01/20/testing-an-all-new-navi...
Re: Redesigning the hotel icon
#29This new icon is definitely much easier to see at lower resolutions, nice work. Can you talk about the choice of using the bed icon versus a hotel-building icon that e.g. Hipmunk uses? http://www.hipmunk.com/hotels
Bed is lodging, which is a concept that has been used in road signs around the world for ages. It's really a no-brainer to pick this one over a building.
Re: Redesigning the hotel icon
#30With all the backlash over Gmail's icons, why not just use text?