Old People Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore

Post by DavidAbrams » Wed, May 09, 2012, 11:12 PM UTC

gbeech wrote: post #36

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…

>Same goes for the clipboard– hell if I know why MS would use that icon for paste, but in no other software that I can think of is that normal. That's easy. When you copy something you place it onto the clipboard, when you past it you are pulling a copy off the clipboard.

Post by DavidAbrams » Wed, May 09, 2012, 11:15 PM UTC

radley wrote: post #27

mindstab wrote: post #21

I'd love to go to schools and get kids in groups like Or maybe they've learned all these icons and while not getting what they did mean, they understand what they mean now, like letters of a new alphabet. Like how many Asian script characters are descendants of more obvious pictograms of actions. They still have meaning even if they've evolved a bit and even changed.

UI designers are constantly forced to come up with new icons for crazy new features. It's a common practice to look for it on Google images, i.e. "Save Icon", and see if there's a common metaphor. If not, you look for similar use cases - something so that it's much quicker for users to grok what it does. That's the fundamental purpose after all. This was the problem with Google/Android's new icons as well as GitHub.…

Post by DavidAbrams » Wed, May 09, 2012, 11:17 PM UTC

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…

Post by DavidAbrams » Wed, May 09, 2012, 11:20 PM UTC

nsmartt wrote: post #8

I have a handset in my house. Envelopes are still used for lots of things. I still get mail. I use screwdrivers pretty often, and I have access to wrenches. I recognize the old microphones from movies (and even if I didn't, they look similar to newer mics.) I've also used a polaroid in the past 5 years. I've also seen TV sets with "rabbit ears" in the past 5 years. The others I'm at least familiar with. I'm 18.

Post by jack-r-abbit » Wed, May 09, 2012, 11:21 PM UTC

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…