Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore • Hacker News Board

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

#101

Post by libria » Thu, May 10, 2012, 1:34 AM UTC

brc wrote: post #55

This goes back a lot further than computer icons. Road signs for railway crossings still show steam trains. Men/Women signs for toilets show women in skirts that nobody wears, on images that hardly resemble people at all. My car has a snowflake for the AC button, even though snow doesn't come out of the vents when you switch it on. Interestingly, signs that ban music players in certain areas now look like Gen 1 iPods…

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 what the icons mean.

I've wondered how non-english speakers learn Java. I don't think they really have to know what the translation for `public` and `class` are as long as they understand how they work.

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

#102

Post by Mz » Thu, May 10, 2012, 1:35 AM UTC

jberryman wrote: post #100

We do the same thing with written language (no one knows or questions where e.g. "pull out all the stops" comes from but it doesn't matter), so why should our visual language be any different?

Actually, I discuss origins of such expressions with my sons quite often, which they find helpful and enlightening. But I had old parents -- my father is one year younger than my ex husband's grandmother and my ex and I graduated high school together -- so I grew up with somewhat more exposure to where things like that come from historically than most people appear to have.

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

#103

Post by MicahWedemeyer » Thu, May 10, 2012, 1:38 AM UTC

Envelopes are a very common item for anyone who runs a business. The vast majority of correspondence with Uncle Sam is done via USPS.

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

#104

Post by philipdlang » Thu, May 10, 2012, 1:47 AM UTC

Really interesting, but a correction should be noted: CC is for courtesy copy, not carbon copy

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

#105

Post by bitwize » Thu, May 10, 2012, 1:47 AM UTC

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".

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

#106

Post by philwelch » Thu, May 10, 2012, 1:49 AM UTC

jack-r-abbit wrote: post #50

gdubs wrote: post #41

Fun read. However, if the suggestion is that we force ourselves to constantly update iconography because the metaphors are outdated, I don't agree. Sailors still say "knots", but I bet young ones don't all know why. People say "breadboard" all of the time when building electronics. Similarly, the very letters of our language evolved out of symbols that meant something to some humans long ago, just as words have an et…

For us young ones: How do sea navigators measure their ships speed? http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae400.cfm

That's interesting. I just assumed it was a sound-alike for "nautical miles per hour", spelled "knots" instead of "nauts" for some arbitrary reason.

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

#107

Post by philwelch » Thu, May 10, 2012, 1:50 AM UTC

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…

The Western Electric handset was still used for years after touchtone phones became commonplace: http://www.telecomwholesalecentral.com/catalog/2500%20WE.jpg

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

#108

Post by wtvanhest » Thu, May 10, 2012, 1:52 AM UTC

Back in my day we didn't care what the icons looked like. I had to use a mouse with hard to move wheel to scroll all the way across a 10 inch screen! And I liked it!

The entire internet was AOL! It took 30 minutes from the time you turned on the computer to the time you loaded your first website. That is when you got all your thinking done!

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

#109

Post by philwelch » Thu, May 10, 2012, 1:53 AM UTC

FuzzyDunlop wrote: post #29

batista wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus, once a reference is established (like the floppy disk) it's idiotic to always replace it with the latest tech (we'd have zip drives in the nineties, usb drives in the '00s, the cloud today, etc etc..)

We might similarly go to another extreme and phase out the use of 'alpha' and 'beta', or just the ancient Greek alphabet altogether. It's thousands of years old, thus despite our ability to record and learn from history, we should replace it with something more modern.

If you phased out "alpha" and "beta", you'd have to call the alphabet the aybee.

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

#110

Post by philwelch » Thu, May 10, 2012, 1:55 AM UTC

tricolon wrote: post #16

While I support the point behind this article, some of them are... not on point. > Want to indicate Settings or Setup to a twenty something? Show them a tool they've never used in their lives. What have screwdrivers and wrenches been replaced with?

> What have screwdrivers and wrenches been replaced with?

(cynical) A trash can followed by a trip to Wal-Mart.