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Laundry symbols make no sense

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Re: Laundry symbols make no sense

#51

Post by masklinn »

ThinkingGuy wrote: post #30

For me the biggest problem with laundry symbols is that they're often printed so small that after a few washes they become too blurry to recognize. Also, while I can feel with my hand whether water is "cold," "warm," or "hot." I honestly have no idea what the actual temperature of the water in my washer is in degrees Celsius. Furthermore, I live in the US (which is not where any of my clothes are made), so there's th…

> Also, while I can feel with my hand whether water is "cold," "warm," or "hot." I honestly have no idea what the actual temperature of the water in my washer is in degrees Celsius.

The explicit temperatures are for machine washing, don't you just... set the washing temperature to whatever you want?

If you're washing by hand, it's unlikely that you're washing above 40C, and that's if you like hurting yourself: at 50C (120F) serious burns take about 10mn, at 60C (140F) it's around 3 seconds.

Re: Laundry symbols make no sense

#52

Post by xwdv »

Does anyone not care about these symbols? There could be so many permutations of options in a pile of clothing that you’d end up having to do so many loads. I just throw everything in and hope for the best.

Re: Laundry symbols make no sense

#53

Post by masklinn »

detritus wrote: post #9

Within a second of seeing the 'improved' ones I spot what is, to my mind at least, an immediate failure - the detail resolution is far too small. It doesn't account for the printing limitations on small fabric tags, never mind the ability of old fogeys such as myself to be able to squint that hard and actually read them. I have no idea even looking on my screen here what the difference between the first three is supp…

> Within a second of seeing the 'improved' ones I spot what is, to my mind at least, an immediate failure - the detail resolution is far too small.

Indeed, especially given the current nonsense is commonly unreadable already after just a wash or two (if not before you've washed the garment).

Re: Laundry symbols make no sense

#54

Post by happytoexplain »

Wow! The new icons have unacceptably small details, and I'm not sure how that's not obvious to even non-designers. And yet the author claims their set puts usability in front of beauty, as opposed to the originals? I don't usually write this negatively, but this really provoked an emotional reaction in me. Self-evidence is only one desirable quality of iconography, and it is not the most important one. Legibility is the most important one. If I can't read the details, or they easily wear off or fade, then it doesn't matter how self-describing they are. Sometimes you have to increase abstraction to increase legibility at the cost of increased learning. This is a common and accepted practice throughout the universe of symbology for excellent reasons.

Edit: Another advantage of high legibility is speed. Even if I have a tag where the new symbols are legible, I won't be interpreting them as quickly as the original symbols, under the precondition that I am already familiar with each set of symbols.

Edit: I think the reason this provoked me is that I have run into cases where this attitude toward design created bad real world experiences, so I immediately want to warn away from it as soon as I see it even in a hypothetical case.

Re: Laundry symbols make no sense

#56

Post by latortuga »

kgermino wrote: post #7

Some of these are better (the bleach one being the most obvious) but most of them are worse or neutral. If I don't know what a line under the washing machine means, how am I supposed to know what the 2nd button means. The line is at least more visible. It's similar for the iron. Maybe dots as temperature isn't obvious, but it's about as clear as the thermometer, is easy to read, and matches the icons on the iron itse…

I think the dots / temp gauge should be combined here. 1 dot / 2 dots / 3 dots. The temperature gauge is hard to tell how full/empty it is which the dots help with, and single dots make it difficult to remember whether left or right means low or high.

Re: Laundry symbols make no sense

#58

Post by Swenrekcah »

Apreche wrote: post #21

I just have a symbol guide printed out and laminated next to the laundry machine. After referencing it enough times eventually you memorize it. No big deal.

I don't do this yet but this was my first reaction to seeing this page. The originals are a bit cryptic when you don't know them, but simple and easy to memorize and even easier to match against a printed sheet next to your washing machine.

I will go and make one sheet for me now.

In fact, this is the stuff that should be part of a high-school curriculum!

Re: Laundry symbols make no sense

#60

Post by bombcar »

Izkata wrote: post #38
bigtones wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original dry-clean and do not dry-clean ones are the most confusing for me. A plain circle is somehow meant to represent dry-cleaning ?

Compare to the other symbols in that set: a square refers to the drying process, with the contents being how to dry it. A circle instead of a square means no drying process, so it shouldn't get wet in the first place - hence dry-cleaning. At least that's how I see it, it could also just have been the last obvious symbol remaining after square/triangle were taken.

Since dry-cleaning isn't "dry" (it still uses liquids, just not water) it should be a simple drop of water symbol with the universal "NO" bar across it like this: https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/blue-drop-or-droplet-of-w...
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