The old ironing symbols were fine and better than the redesigned ones.
Specially when I take my cheapish Iron in hand look at the control and see oh there is 1 dot, 2 dot and 3 dot setting...
Laundry symbols make no sense
91–100 of 237 posts
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#92The original symbols were _engineered_. These new symbols are _designed_. There's a difference, and this falls into the same shortcomings of many modern UI designers: they only design for what appeals to them personally.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
All washing machines I've used in the UK have a temperature selector dial. They usually offer a number of presets such as 30c, 40c, 60c and 90c.
Interesting! I don't believe that's how USA washing machines work, they usually just say "hot", "warm", and "cold". Apparently USAians are washing machine philistines who don't need more than three temperatures and don't know what they are? Anyway, this shows another challenge in these icons, the international diversity of washing techniques and technology. (Edit: I found one possible answer online -- Euro washing ma…
In Latin America our home washing machines are usually connected to ‘cold’ water only. Except in homes with separate cold/hot water pipes.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#94I have always found laundry symbols confusing. I agree with other comments that this proposed replacement has too many problems to be acceptable, but surely someone can do better than "crossed-out triangle", "underlined water cup", "Cylon wearing a jaunty cap", and my personal favorite, "literally just a circle". Weird fact: Despite having been around for decades, laundry symbols have not been assigned Unicode code p…
There's nothing wrong with the symbols. Your washing machine is the one that should have a printed table of them somewhere.
Take a look on those symbols: "A", "B", "C". A triangle with the basis moved up, two circles with a straight side, and an open circumference arc. They were abstract into complete meaningless, yet they are great for their use-case.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#95A very interesting exercise, but I believe the old symbols are not that hard to getting acquanted with. My mom explained them to me... what, three decades ago? Of course I don't remember most of them, but I usually buy the same types of clothes so I basically always use the same program.
Additionally, laundry & ironing professionals have those symbols more than memorized ;)
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#96I think I’d argue that it’s beneficial in this case to lean towards abstract figures which must be looked up. What the designer calls intuitive, I might argue is actually easier to misinterpret. One must remember that these are international symbols and the cultural context you bring to interpretation is different from another’s.
Also there is very clear design goal with originals for each being distinct from others. Which explains lot of design.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#97Some 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…
To me it looks like neither you nor the designer have ever used an iron on their clothes. Every iron I have ever seen had one, two and three dot markings at the appropriate positions on the temperature dial. Or does that just happen on European irons?
No that happens here (US) too. That’s what I was referring to when I said it “matches the icons on the iron itself” but it’s not a very clear sentence.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#98Within 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…
I really find the idea that "having to know, or lookup stuff", as a problem, offensive. Laundry is literally filled with things to know, outside of these symbols. Household tasks are. I don't see labels on bleech bottles, saying not to mix it with vinegar or you could die. Yet people have done that in the wash, so why not start there? Here's what each sane person should do, who actually takes time to look at tags. (a…
The tags aren't that hard to remember, either. Do not bleach is the only one that you have to think, oh right the triangle is a bottle of bleach. The circle in a square is describing spin cycle. The circle with no square is describing drying without heat. The iron is describing an iron. The dots always represent the three levels of heat, just like on your iron.
I remember this in spite of not having done laundry in 5 years. And you're exactly right. New symbols mean little to me, I would still need to look them up and then there would be twice as many bad symbols.
This redesign article is an example of why you should avoid UI/UX people who can only design. They'll change your branding everytime they get bored and create more headache than they solve.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#99Some 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…
> the bleach one being the most obvious
It’s really not. It looks like an Erlenmeyer flask, which could contain anything (“use detergent”? “Use additives”? There are lots of things that come up in bottles in my laundry room).
I found the ones about drying to be better, probably because the original ones were way too abstract.
> If I don't know what a line under the washing machine means, how am I supposed to know what the 2nd button means.
Exactly! I don’t know what pushing the 2nd button on my washing machine does, either. Hell, my washing machine does not have anything that looks like the buttons of the symbols. And good luck trying to guess which one of the three buttons is filled after 5 washes, when the presence of one or two lines will still be clear.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#100So many laundry tags have OTT requirements. I have hoodies that claim dry clean only, but of course come out completely fine in the machine. Lots of bras say hand wash only but we've never had any issues with them in the machine either.
Generally, we just ignore the labels and put all the clothes in a colour separated wash on the 30c daily eco cycle. If the clothes get damaged - which is rare in a modern non-agitator washing machine - we just don't buy that type of fabric/garment any more. It does reduce the clothing options a little bit, for example, no silk, but it's worth the improved quality of life. Laundry Darwinism.
There are a few types of necessary item we do get dry cleaned, such as expensive suits and ball gowns, but at least for us those are rare use.
The other thing that has improved our life a lot is only buying non-iron clothing.