In the 1800s, broadcasting meant standing in the field and throwing seeds in every direction. We've been adapting old idioms to new uses since long before everything turned into a computer.
Nice. Learned something.
Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
261–270 of 279 posts
Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
#262Makes me wonder how old the author is. Reminds me of an anecdote I read about an elementary school that had a rotary phone for the kids to use well after digital phones were the norm. The kids had to be taught how to use it. One child ultimately concluded it was not too different from a digital phone though it was real slow. Reminds me of my standard flippant remark to my sons when they were growing up: "When I was a…
Ah yes, rotary phones. What a wonderful modern invention. Saved much time and prevented many errors over having to tap on the handset cradle.
Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
#263Reminds me of a Bucky Fuller rant about the "incorrect" words we still use every day even though we know more now than when they came into use. His best example is "world wide", which he put forward should really be "world around" since we all now know that the earth is a globe and not flat.
Wow! This really should be known more widely.
Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
#264Really interesting, but a correction should be noted: CC is for courtesy copy, not carbon copy
Citation required, my understanding is that CC predates emails and would designate those to whom carbon copies were to be sent.
Yes, carbon copy. I used them and still have some from ancient correspondence. I think "Courtesy Copy" was an attempt to update the acronym which is amusing and much in line with folks wanting to update icons. Not necessarily a bad thing, just kind of fun to know about.
Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even more bizarre is the road sign for speed cameras - it shows a camera that nobody has seen for a century http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcToxHFPJthCpR32ukk5h...
If they've never watched a period film or TV program ...
Yes that's why I have a papyrus plant as the icon for my word processor
Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
#266The problem is that if we modernized most of our iconography, a heck of a lot of things won't be able to be represented simply with something distinctive enough. This is largely due to what I'll call the merging of things into the same form largely driven by computing. For example... Icon for a phone - rectangular screen Icon for a TV - rectangular screen Icon for a tablet - rectangular screen Icon for a camera - rec…
I'm not sure the whole icon thing actually works.
For MacPaint with 8 functions it was great. For picking one of a dozen apps on an iPhone - fine.
But the last version of the 3D cad package I used had over 5000 commands - and each one of those was represented by a unique and (supposedly) intuitive icon! That's getting close to the Chinese alphabet
Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, I did not know that!
Interesting, I did a little looking and it seems it means both. http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc733 indicates carbon for BCC. It may be a backronym as Wikipedia mentions.
Ironic that you refer to an RFC. CC was used in correspondence long before internets and RFCs (as was BCC). It meant "carbon copy" just as you said originally. This is a bit like updating an icon. The icon (actually acronym) was left unchanged and someone thought to call it "courtesy copy" because they must have thought carbon copies obsolete and confusing. Actually, I don't know the genesis of the term "courtesy copy", but I'm pretty sure it was an update.
Sorry this whole rambling note is further evidence that old people (and their icons) don't make sense anymore.
Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alright: I generally do call them directories. I grew up in UNIX. But we're talking about icons and UX here. Do you consider the "desktop" to be so infantilizing as well? 1: filesystem > directories > files 2: Desktop > Folders > Documents They're both models for (basically) the same thing. The technical incorrectness of folder doesn't interfere with usage in real scenarios, unless you expect Average Joe to be struct…
Alright: I generally do call them directories. I grew up in UNIX. But we're talking about icons and UX here. Do you consider the "desktop" to be so infantilizing as well? Why yes, yes I do. Desktop environments are all attempted answers to the question "why is a computer like a writing desk?" The question is absurd in its own right, but carries additional absurdity baggage such as calling all files "documents". A mov…
In that case it seems you've made a great case for why programmers make terrible interfaces and why UX is so important for everyone else. While models can certainly be adapted and evolve (as say iOS vs. a command line), I find it silly to try and put them in the same category. Maybe I'm begging to be flamed, but I don't see it as being much different from arguing over programming paradigms and high vs. low level. Do I really care that if a string is an array of pointers or not while developing a web app? I don't have to "pretend" that the computer knows exactly what I mean when I tell it to puts "hey"– but unless the underlying process has a meaningful effect on the current process, then it's all moot.
The desktop model's heyday may be passing right in front of us, but more likely than not the consequences are going to lead towards even higher level abstractions. For fertility, and for clarity (so that engineers can talk to engineers, and everyone else doesn't get mistaken for a really stupid engineer).
Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
#269The problem is that if we modernized most of our iconography, a heck of a lot of things won't be able to be represented simply with something distinctive enough. This is largely due to what I'll call the merging of things into the same form largely driven by computing. For example... Icon for a phone - rectangular screen Icon for a TV - rectangular screen Icon for a tablet - rectangular screen Icon for a camera - rec…
I'm not sure the whole icon thing actually works. For MacPaint with 8 functions it was great. For picking one of a dozen apps on an iPhone - fine. But the last version of the 3D cad package I used had over 5000 commands - and each one of those was represented by a unique and (supposedly) intuitive icon! That's getting close to the Chinese alphabet
CAD is definitely one area where UX is so far behind it's pretty much useless. The command line is the fastest and only useful way to be productive. Rather than spend all their time coming up with icons for each little dot it sure would be nice if they'd do a little research on exploring alternative UIs (hint: simply allowing me to customize toolbars is not the answer).
Re: Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
This "nothing we can replace it with" sounded wrong to me, so I spent a moment trying to quickly draw on my tablet some possible alternate metaphors for many of the things used in this article, and I came up with these: http://drostie.org/icons.png (Disclaimer: my ability to draw is very limited so this looks unintentionally minimalist, because my "boxes" are just squares.) You could have some convention which says,…
I like your general icons, but your phone is already obsolete. I'm also not sure why the last two represent real world devices rather than abstract concepts, given that your other icons are pretty intuitive.
There's a problem with "search" in particular because I just have too many ideas. Almost all of them suck.
What's the most iconic image of search? Finding a needle in a haystack. Well, that won't do. Second most iconic image of search? Police searching a home. Looking for your keys. Rummaging couch cushions for change. Steal the Google logo.
Some ideas of search are okay, but don't play well with the other icons -- a piece of paper with text, one of the lines suddenly jumps to a fragment of blue text. (It works if your "find" highlights a word with a blue box when it finds it.)
The closest I have come to another good icon for search is to try to denote the question, "where is it?" This could be a question mark with the "box" which represents the filesystem. Perhaps many balls are shown coming out of the box. Or perhaps a stack of notecards with one of them being pulled out.
"Call" is different because I have too few ideas. A phone, perhaps. Two faces seen in profile could mean "converse" with the implication that there will be voice. Or an ear, perhaps, with its oblong shape. Telephone wires are iconic in parts of the US, but are an oddity abroad. And beyond that, I'm a bit lost.