It seems like "just pick something arbitrary and everyone agree on it" is a better solution than "find a small simple icon that effectively evokes 'share' to a brand new user." In other words, this is confusing not because the icons don't represent sharing well enough, but because they're different on every platform. There are lots of things on computers that aren't immediately obvious, but once you learn the convention, you don't forget it. I don't care which one we use, but we need to be consistent. (Ok, not the milkshake.)
Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
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Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#32I feel like if somebody did what Apple did for the cloud icon (i.e., came up with a canonical geometric representation[1]) to the 'Graph Diagram'[2] mentioned in the article, then you'd find that everyone would just wind up using that. [1] http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ThereIsOnlyOneCloudIconInTheEn... [2] https://bold.pixelapse.com/minming/share-the-icon-no-one-agr...
As noted in your first link, the concept of a circle based cloud was around in the 70s on BBC, if not other places too. I drew one for my consulting firm in 2006, before Mobile Me adopted one.
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#33a small take on the subject http://imgur.com/a/rXXro#0
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#34The problem that comes before this one is whether share is a well-understood action. If I "share" via e-mail, then I transmit a document to others. After this, each recipient has a separate copy which, thereafter, is completely out of my control. If I "share" via social network, then I upload a document. This makes a single copy, accessible to previously chosen people. It is (depending on the social network) somewhat…
I agree with what you are saying. Read my comment below.
Expanding on that, and with the clear examples you gave, maybe the thing is that traditional or classic icons pictures the channel where the information was traveling and not the action itself.
A fax icon implies sending a document because everyone knows that a fax can only send documents. So the icon is representing the channel.
Same for the envelope icon with email (or even snail mail). It pictures the channel, not the action.
If you see a group of icons, one with the Facebook icon, one with Reddit's, one with Slashdot's, etc, you automatically know that it has to do with that particular channel, even if the action per se might not be clear enough, e.g. if I click the Facebook icon, what action am I taking? am I uploading/sending/sharing/pasting/chatting/emailing?
I don't care, I only care that the channel is the correct one. The service that administers that channel is the responsible one for doing what the user expects.
So maybe a fundamental flaw, like you say, is that different actions represent different channels but we are trying to put actions AND channels under a single umbrella, then there's no surprise that you can find lots of edge cases where the idea doesn't apply.
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#35I like this article, and I tend to agree with its conclusions about which ones are most common on most platforms, but isn't this at best heuristics and at worst wrong assumptions?
Like, I would use these as my heuristic guidelines if I was on the job and constraints dictate that I can't spend time on researching icons. But I wouldn't write a blog post authoritatively telling people that one icon is more recognized that the other without having some kind of research to back it up.
Then again, the author does say at one point that their research is extremely informal, so maybe I'm just projecting my feelings about the cowboy nature of the UX profession right now. But I still feel like they could do more to qualify that these just appear to be their best guesses about how people interpret the share icon.
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#36Is there a meaningful difference between share and upload any more? "I have something on my device, I want to put it somewhere else" is how that icon is used in iOS and OSX, and for almost all of my use cases, that seems to be correct.
Well, for me at least the difference is that uploading implies a single destination (I know this doesn't always hold, but conceptually I think it does. Otherwise there are multiple distinct uploads) And sharing implies multiple agents, be them on a single or multiple destinations. I know my definition doesn't seem clearcut, but I think the implication is that you could share by means of uploading or you could share w…
I think your over thinking it from the normal users point of view. I want to press the button to give this thing on my phone to other(s). How that happens isn't really my concern (link, full file, etc.).
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, for me at least the difference is that uploading implies a single destination (I know this doesn't always hold, but conceptually I think it does. Otherwise there are multiple distinct uploads) And sharing implies multiple agents, be them on a single or multiple destinations. I know my definition doesn't seem clearcut, but I think the implication is that you could share by means of uploading or you could share w…
I think your over thinking it from the normal users point of view. I want to press the button to give this thing on my phone to other(s). How that happens isn't really my concern (link, full file, etc.).
You are probably right. Point taken.
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#38I'm just thinking out loud here, but after reading the Milkshake concept, I thought that maybe the problem is in the word "share" as the driving concept and not the icon per se. In terms of the milkshake, that's the perfect icon. You actually share something when you stop having "a whole" and now you have "a part" but then someone else has "a part" as well. That's what I've seen parent teach their kids over and over…
> With electronic articles and other media that gets shared, you actually share nothing in that sense, you just let someone know about it, whilst still keeping the whole yourself.
What about thinking of it as you both "sharing time/attention" on the target object?
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#39The author seems to be quite fond of Apple's iOS6-era Share icon. It would be interesting to ask somebody who isn't familiar with Apple's products what that icon means. I've always found it a bit confusing.
In general, this kind of thing would actually be a interesting research project.
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#40As a reluctant social media user, I think a can of SPAM would be perfect.
You can share content via email too. It's not just for new social media sites.
(I'm actually not sure if this makes your SPAM analogy more or less appropriate.)