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Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
151–160 of 166 posts
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#152Apple gets this spot on by having an icon represent the action actually being performed, i.e., sending some information somewhere. That could be to yourself (a bookmark) to another person, a group of people, or the public at large. It doesn't really matter. Many of the others are trying to represent the abstract concept of "sharing", which doesn't fit the use case at all. That's why those icons don't make any sense.…
Apple's sign looks very much like an exit sign to me: http://www.designofsignage.com/application/symbol/railway/la... https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=exit%20Pictog...
Yeah, it reminds me mostly of the MediaWiki outgoing link icon, which is used as an "exit sign".
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#153I like the hand icon, the milkshake might work but make the milk transparent with a line for the top of it
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#154If any Apple designer reading this, please propose on replacing the share icon with a milkshake!
It's just perfect!
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#155The 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…
Non-technical users have always understood the concepts of: publish (or broadcast), share (or collaborate), and give (or send). The computer world is the one that limited these concepts. Before web: you can only copy and give. After web: you can give, or publish. After cloud: you can give, publish, and share. I think these concepts should be as well differentiated in the digital world as they are in the physical.
Agreed. "Share" is an ideologically motivated term.
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#156The 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 think you are over thinking this a little. If you take "share" as a blanket term for "make this file accessible to others in some form" then it is clear why all of these actions should be grouped together, even if their details and implementation are quite different. That is why I think the ios icon is not so problematic, because "share" in this sense is a generalisation of uploading. You are not necessarily sendin…
Agreed, and although I initially didn't like the new iOS icon it does make sense to think of it as outbound/upload vs. inbound/download.
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#157Apple gets this spot on by having an icon represent the action actually being performed, i.e., sending some information somewhere. That could be to yourself (a bookmark) to another person, a group of people, or the public at large. It doesn't really matter. Many of the others are trying to represent the abstract concept of "sharing", which doesn't fit the use case at all. That's why those icons don't make any sense.…
Apple's sign looks very much like an exit sign to me: http://www.designofsignage.com/application/symbol/railway/la... https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=exit%20Pictog...
Interesting point. In a way, whatever you're sharing or sending is leaving your system.
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think "send" vs. "share" is a good point. Email/SMS/DM/IM all have a recipient - they're messages that are sent. A social network or blog does not. They're objects that are shared . Using separate icons for "share" vs "send" would make sense to users. I'm thinking some kind of "upload" metaphor vs "message" metaphor is right. Messaging metaphors are easy, but upload is a bit more tricky... Apple might have the righ…
I've been noticing that many android apps use the 'paper airplane' icon for 'send email' or 'send message' as opposed to sharing.
The Gmail app for iOS does as well.
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#159There is a cultural component here as well. How do you create an icon that represents sharing across many cultures and many countries? I am thinking of things like Facebook and mobile devices.
For instance, while the milkshake icon is an interesting new approach, I wonder how much sense it makes in many cultures and countries.
Re: Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
#160I thought this was going to be about how I don't agree the icon should exist at all.