Laundry symbols make no sense
uxdesign.cc
Laundry symbols make no sense
1–10 of 237 posts
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#2I wonder if the reason they don't make sense is the lack of common appliances and 'plastic dry cleaning covers' around the globe. Every iron has a dot-based temperature setting (alongside others, generally), but not everyone knows what a mercury thermometer looks like or if that means 'temperature setting'.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#3come on, there's like four verbs here, and the annotations are intuitive if you have the context. just because you never do your own laundry doesn't mean the rest of us don't know what's up.
they make more sense than most mobile UIs, and there's usually text with them anyway.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#4The re-designed ones are much harder to "read"
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#5I liked the case study, but I think what the author is missing is that the symbols in use today accommodate many different printing techniques across the garment and textile industries. If everything was done using sublimation, then sure, you could use more complex symbols. But that's not the case.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#6Speaking of bad design, who thought it was a good idea to blink the labels in the animation, immediately after saying half of people asked knew none of the symbols?
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#7Some 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 itself.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#8" these symbols are designed to be memorized or looked up" ok so include it on the front of your washing machine and dryer.
" stroke width was increased so the overall shapes can still be read when details are lost to the viewing distance or blurred visions"
Increasing the stroke width isn't going to overcome this and the symbols have to be durable enough to still be read after the tag is worn and faded.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#9Within 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 supposed to be, and the numerals in the three thereafter are only legible because I'm staring at a bright screen, not swearing into the void in my laundry room, trying to find a better light.
All that aside, I feel I'd still have to look their new interpretations up. International visual vernacular .. doesn't really exist.
Re: Laundry symbols make no sense
#10It’s a decent start, but without testing, there’s no evidence that these icons are any better than the originals.
I’m not sure that they even meets the authors own objectives — there are more small details that are harder to resolve at small sizes and likely would be harder to print clearly. They also aren’t any more “googleable” than the originals.
Lastly, they also assume that users are familiar with front loading washing machines, which may not be common in some places. It could easily be interpreted as a tumble dryer.