Share: The Icon No One Agrees On • Hacker News Board

Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On

#51

Post by ecesena » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 11:42 PM UTC

ggchappell wrote: post #20

The 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'd add the "share" by "copying an url into the clipboard" (that even requires the user to manually go to another app and paste the url to actually share) which is a really common practice to avoid supporting millions of share methods.

Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On

#52

Post by bitwize » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 11:43 PM UTC

Those "graph diagram" ones look like the Spathi Eluder to me. Not quite the image that you want to invoke.

Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On

#53

Post by thrush » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 11:43 PM UTC

I think the milkshake is a step in the right direction. Many other popular icons (envelope for e-mail, key for authentication, gear for changing inner working aka settings) borrow from a non-digital analogy, and I think that's what the author was trying to represent with the milkshake. The milkshake unfortunately does not quite meet the analogy. When you share content, you are not sharing something that is limited physically (like a toy, food, or drink). Rather you are spreading the word about a piece of information. Two more accurate representation that I can think of would be one person whispering into another's ear (for DM), or a person on a podium like he/she is giving a speech (for broadcast).

Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On

#54

Post by r00fus » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 11:46 PM UTC

epmatsw wrote: post #22

Is 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.

Yes.

It bothered me when I first used iOS7, but now it simply makes sense. I still don't like the thinness of the icon, but at least it's sensible.

Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On

#55

Post by nob » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 11:47 PM UTC

I think this one is easy. We take the RSS icon and use it for sharing instead. Such a waste to have such a good icon only be used for such a specific data stream.

Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On

#56

Post by bztzt » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 11:50 PM UTC

Incidentally, early prerelease versions of Windows 8 used the "Open Share" icon: http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/195351i26jesbggjt18g0i... ; wonder why they changed it.

Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On

#57

Post by whoa-duder » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 11:51 PM UTC

Words, why not use words?

Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On

#58

Post by guelo » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 11:53 PM UTC

lcnmrn wrote: post #50

ripter wrote: post #11

Upload and Share tend to be the same thing for most users. You want this on that . I don't think it's coincidence that the share icon looks like an upload icon in iOS7.

This is the correct behaviour. The exact same sign is used on exit doors of buses. http://ak6.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/3922265/preview/sto... The same thing happen with information, it goes from one place to another. The fact that this action takes many forms doesn't really matter.

That bus icon means exit. I've seen similar icons in apps that mean logout, i.e. leave the app.

Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On

#59

Post by tripngroove » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 11:59 PM UTC

radley wrote: post #17

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_icon The Android share icon has been around since (at least?) 2006 and was used a lot on websites, particularly Wordpress-based sites. It was initially open source but then sold Share This and trademarked. Most services use the icon shape without ST's green button background.

I think you've touched on one big source of this problem, which is that many of these icons have been trademarked and saddled with all manner of usage restrictions and licenses.

As an entrepreneur or designer, am I going to waste who knows how much time interpreting the usage guidelines from Share This, or devote valuable space on my site to giving the Open Share people an attribution?

No. I'm going to spend 5 minutes designing something that won't cause future legal threats or trouble at acquisition time.

We need something with an MIT-like license on it.

Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On

#60

Post by eridius » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 12:00 AM UTC

morsch wrote: post #15

I think the Android icons are fine. The old one is a bit easier to understand due to the explicit arrow direction, but the new one is implicitly directed correctly for people who are trained to read left to right. It's abstract and consequently vague, but I don't think that's a big problem: I expect there to be a share functionality, and in that context the icon is easy enough to understand. The new Apple icon is les…

> the new one is implicitly directed correctly for people who are trained to read left to right. It's abstract and consequently vague, but I don't think that's a big problem: I expect there to be a share functionality, and in that context the icon is easy enough to understand.

I disagree. I think you're just rationalizing your own knowledge of what this means. And I say that because, as someone who's never used Android, I have literally never seen that icon before. And if I had seen it in a context other than a blog post about share icons, I would have had no idea whatsoever what it meant.