On 12/9/2019 9:40 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
On 12/9/19 5:04 AM, Dan Purgert wrote:
Imo, the quality of the icon design has gone downhill over the last few
years. Not just Apple, but every where. They are no longer visually
intuitive.
Were they ever though? I mean, about the only one that I can recall
(ever) looking like what it's supposed to be is trash / recycle bin.

There will never be a UI that is intuitive all users. Simply not
possible. So icons need to be intuitive for the majority, or at least a
number of groups.

Take a look at the desktop icon for for File Manager from Windows 3.x:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Manager_(Windows)

Now look at W10's icon for File Explorer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Explorer

The purpose of File Manager/Windows Explorer/File Explorer is to
organize your files on floppies or hard drive, thumb drive, etc. Which
of those 2 icons do you think better represent where you are going to be
working by referring to something you've seen in your life?

Document icons used to have lines on them that indicated something in
writing. A folder icon looked like a partially open folder with
something inside, when that icon was selected or the folder was not empty.

The icons were also large enough to be easily identifiable. Not the
small things you see today.

Your trash can example is so accurate. The icon used to look like a 33
gal. trash can. As opposed to the square with a triangle on top as was
used by Gmail for some time.

I've seen some icons that actually had the text as part of the icon.


I use the smallest icons possible on my desktop and task bar, to provide
room for as many as possible. So, with a few exceptions, most of them
are unrecognizable. For most, I rely much more on the test accompanying
the icon.

Could the icons be better designed to be more recognizable? For some,
yes. For others, I can't think of how. But I hardly care. Again, I rely
much more on the text accompanying the icon.

--
Ken