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The evolution of the On/Off power switch symbol (2008)

designblog.nzeldes.com

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Re: The evolution of the On/Off power switch symbol (2008)

#41

Post by TeMPOraL »

SoftTalker wrote: post #18

There are other, sometimes contradictory conventions. In the USA, a standard wall switch is moved "up" for on and "down" for off whereas in Europe it's the opposite. Always wondered how that came to be.

Then there's standard walls switch in Europe, which works whichever way the electrician happened to wire it. And then, existence of "stair switches"[0] means you can't ever rely on directionality being consistent.

Now, let's talk about water faucets and which side is hot, and which one is cold...

--

[0] - Don't know what the formal way for these are; I'm thinking of two switches hooked up in a XOR pattern to the same light - i.e. light turns on when the switches are in opposite positions, and off if they're in the same position.

Re: The evolution of the On/Off power switch symbol (2008)

#42

Post by flpm »

There is an exhibit right now at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in NYC about the work of Henry Dreyfuss did with his Symbol Sourcebook (https://www.cooperhewitt.org/channel/give-me-a-sign/) which heavily influenced the design of most symbols we use today, including this one.

You can view most of the exhibit online: https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/exhibitions/2318807647/

Worth taking a look!

Re: The evolution of the On/Off power switch symbol (2008)

#43

Post by Doxin »

geor9e wrote: post #37

The bus I take to work has their air vents labeled backwards ⭘ for on/open ⏽ for off/shut

That sort of makes sense if you interpret it as circle/line and not 0/1. A circle for an open vent and a line for a closed vent.

That's still dumb though. Why not use the universal bacon/no bacon icons?

Re: The evolution of the On/Off power switch symbol (2008)

#44

Post by JohnFen »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #41
SoftTalker wrote: post #18

There are other, sometimes contradictory conventions. In the USA, a standard wall switch is moved "up" for on and "down" for off whereas in Europe it's the opposite. Always wondered how that came to be.

Then there's standard walls switch in Europe, which works whichever way the electrician happened to wire it. And then, existence of "stair switches"[0] means you can't ever rely on directionality being consistent. Now, let's talk about water faucets and which side is hot, and which one is cold... -- [0] - Don't know what the formal way for these are; I'm thinking of two switches hooked up in a XOR pattern to the same…

> Don't know what the formal way for these are

These are called "three-way switches" in the US.

Re: The evolution of the On/Off power switch symbol (2008)

#45

Post by TeMPOraL »

aargh_aargh wrote: post #22
graypegg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have actually seen the diamond "start" symbol [0] on ONE consumer-ish appliance! It was an office coffee machine at my old job, big green membrane IEC start button. These symbols are ubiquitous on industrial kit (and in your car, surprisingly enough), it's kind of a shame they are barely used at all else where. There's a pretty wide vocabulary of symbols. [0] https://www.iso.org/obp/ui#iec:grs:60417:5104

You've never used one of these? https://duckduckgo.com/?ia=images&iax=images&q=photocopier+s...

Photocopiers? Yeah, I saw that symbol on some of them. But then even some of the image results show that manufacturers of photocopiers and printers, particularly targeting general consumer market, let their designers get creative with the shapes, colors and labels on the buttons.

Re: The evolution of the On/Off power switch symbol (2008)

#46

Post by dheera »

SoftTalker wrote: post #31
Turing_Machine wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise the indication (if any) on a sheet-fed scanner tray that tells you whether to put the paper in face up or face down. I've taken to just writing instructions to myself on that type of thing with a sharpie, using actual text, and/or an actual diagram. It works well with the usual beige plastic. If it's black, I usually put it on a small piece of paper and tape it somewhere it won't interfere with the operation…

> bad icons are far worse than no icons Yes. Cars used to have words like "OIL" or "TEMP" or "BRAKE" or "SEAT BELT" in the dashboad warning lights. That switched to icons, probably as a cost-savings so they could use the same parts worldwide. But at a cost in clarity. Now that most new car dashboards have programmable LCD displays or at least a message area, better/more descriptive fault descriptions have returned.

They also picked really bad designs for the icons. The flat tire warning looks like a boiling cauldron. Even I could have designed a 10X better icon.

Re: The evolution of the On/Off power switch symbol (2008)

#47

Post by dheera »

floxy wrote: post #36
dheera wrote: post #14

The one I REALLY HATE is the paper orientation icon on printer paper trays. Ones like these: https://static.thenounproject.com/png/4256363-200.png Do the lines on the paper mean "insert the side that already has writing face up, and the side that is blank face down" OR "these lines represent what will happen after you print but they're just being represented here for your imagination purposes even though they aren't…

>"insert the side that already has writing face up, and the side that is blank face down" More odd that it would be on a printer, but for a scanner, it is telling you that it will scan the side that is face up. For a printer, I'd be willing to be that icon is telling you that it is going to print on the face-up side.

on that note Google Meet is also confusing in a similar way

https://i.imgur.com/H66aXTU.png

The "phone down hang up" button means press to get what is pictured

The "crossed out mic" button means press to get the opposite of what is pictured

Re: The evolution of the On/Off power switch symbol (2008)

#48

Post by astrobe_ »

bcherry wrote: post #17
dehrmann wrote: post #11

The 1/0 thing confused me for a while because 0 looks like a circuit (on), and 1 doesn't (0ff). I was also taking electrical engineering classes at the time, and the 1/0 true/false thing was already halfway arbitrary because of active-low pins, and even in software land, "return 0" could mean either true or false depending on the context.

I agree that I/O has always been confusing and non-intuitive. O stands for "On"? For "Off"? I means eyes-shut? O means eyes open? The new symbols aren't any better but the UX of "push this button to turn on or off" combined with obvious lights/etc when something is on has mostly made the semantic meaning of the symbols obsolete to 99% of consumers.

I've always seen it as I/O and thought of it as In and Out - makes sense to me but English is not my native language.

Re: The evolution of the On/Off power switch symbol (2008)

#49

Post by TeMPOraL »

dheera wrote: post #14

The one I REALLY HATE is the paper orientation icon on printer paper trays. Ones like these: https://static.thenounproject.com/png/4256363-200.png Do the lines on the paper mean "insert the side that already has writing face up, and the side that is blank face down" OR "these lines represent what will happen after you print but they're just being represented here for your imagination purposes even though they aren't…

Oh, printers, inexhaustible source of fun.

My approach for over a decade now has been, before any "manual duplex" printing, to start by marking the top page in the tray with a little arrow pointing upwards, drawn with pencil or pen, in the bottom right corner of the page. I'd then print one page (and/or print a test page), and check the position of the arrow, to learn how the particular printer behaves.

To date, I've probably seen every possible orientation of the arrow on the output. Some printers do insane things to paper.

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