Hi Drew, *
Drew Jensen schrieb:
Juergen Schmidt wrote:
> [...] the key message of the icons is to strengthen the ODF brand.
> And that application independent! For ODF it is important that
> people understand the openness of the format, that it is based on
> a standard and that it can be used with different applications.
>
> From my point of view it makes really sense to have this unique
> icons for ODF files. And hopefully most often OpenOffice.org is
> the default app on the system to open these files.
[FYI - I started this email a few days ago and some of the points
have been made by others, but I wanted to comment so will just send
it as is..]
Could not agree more with that opinion, when the discussion is
regarding mime file type icons. The value of branding the actual
file types for ODF it seems to me is one of the most important steps
to be performed at this point. OpenOffice.org, thanks to the work of
many individuals and organizations, has achieved a strong name
recognition. [...] Name recognition and market share are capital, and
capital needs to be invested - an investment targeted to building an
ODF brand like a winning proposition from even an OpenOffice.org
centric perspective.
I'm all with you on that point - branding ODF is good investment for OOo.
(OK - I already wrote this several times and should not repeat myself
too much...)
The new file type icon set developed appears quite good to my eye;
the lack, or singularity, of the color theme seems to me a good
thing. Think Adobe here for their simple red themed PDF format.
PDF is only one file type, the ODF file types differ much between each
other. Recognition by their grey symbols might be not enough IMHO.
Microsoft has already established a rather strong association
between blue and doc file format - OK, we have a little different
blue - works for me :>) After all we want folks to refer to text
documents and mean Open Document Text Documents...right.
Not only text documents: With the new icons we refer to spreadsheets,
presentations, databases too. There is no assiciation with blue - and
users (especially the MS Office users we want to convince to move) await
green, orange or crimson/violet colors for these file types.
This could be solved with different colors for the "ODF" area, but it
would reduce the strength of the ODF branding.
I'd keep one color scheme for ODF branding (preferably colors not
already associated with a certain file type - and the ODF logo already
uses such colors: yellow and violet), but add the file type information
otherwise.
With the MS Offfice color similarities we used up to now people keep
present associations - so why not add them (less prominent) to the icons?
Another way would be using the different ODF file formats in the same
style as branding elements:
<ODT> ODF text document
<ODS> ODF spreadsheet document
<ODP> ODF presentation document
<ODG> ODF graphics document
and so on.
The brackets symbolize the ODF origin as XML based file format, together
with the repetitive usage of "OD" and the colored background this might
give a sufficient association with ODF as the basis for different
document file formats.
That said, and just to be sure, there is no talk here of changing
the icons displayed by the OpenOffice.org executables - in all their
current and glorious color. I believe that's correct?
I don't understand the reason to reduce the visual relation between
application and document icons. The application icons are much less
visible than the document icons: People tend to open a file directly
instead of opening the application first and then open a document inside
this program.
I'd add the ODF badge to the application icons too - this shows that all
the OOo applications support ODF, it keeps consistency between
application and document icon and improves branding on both ODF and OOo.
To me then the issue that is of concern is the start center. I
really think that users will have no problem making a distinction,
in their minds, between what we display in the start center and what
we display in the operating system supplied functionality for file
types. ( Explorer, Finder, Browser, etc )
At the moment the start center displays the document icons, but it might
be discussed if they don't behave like the app icons: They open the apps
with an empty document. So why not show the app icons instead?
Once we found a common design for the document icons, the start center
will have to get a new design - perhaps a new functionality too ...
That does not mean I feel *strongly* that the current application
icons must not be changed, or the actual start center graphics - if
someone in the arts group wants to take a run at adding our current
color theme to the proposed mime type icons for use in the start
center I for one would love to see it.
I don't see a reason for a third set of icons besides the app and the
doc icons. (You know my opinion on partially coloring the doc icons).
What I would hope to see along with such a change would be a shift
in the marketing materials such that the ODF mime file-type icons
are emphasized over a diminished perhaps, but maintained, use of the
OpenOffice.org specific application icons - and - color themes. This
is my definition of investing OpenOffice.org capital, this inclusion
of ODF as a specific feature within all of the communities
activities.
Full agreement - but I don't want to exclude the document icons.
Even if the colorless design might be an singularity feature (but you
mentined PDF doing the same), I see much more advantages than
disadvantages for usage of the (diminished) colors.
Promoting ODF is a very good chance for OOo - and a collaborative
marketing action among the ODF supporting applications might have even
more success.
It seems to me that such an action would make it more likely that
Linux distributions would want to use these mime type icons in their
default, non application specific, icon sets.
I'd like to see them joining in too.
With regards to other
applications that also use the ODF file type and OS distro's
changing the application icons - well they do that now, so that is a
non issue in my mind - just assume they will do so in the future.
Of course it is not easy to convince them to use similar icons - for
apps as well as for the documents.
But if they include the ODF badge in their design, this would finally
lead to a more consistent look and feel for all the ODF supporting
applications.
Actually, looking at this question of separating the use of the odf
mime type icons from the start center I can't help but think such
would be best for the other cross platform applications based on
OpenOffice.org code - Symphony, OOo4Kids jump to mind, then count in
Novell OpenOffice.org, Star Office. Each project going after a
slightly different segment of users and so seems fitting that they
will want to change the application specific iconography to match.
In the case of OOo4Kids, Novell OO.o and Star Office each use the
start center, IIRC.
They can use similar document icons with just slight differences by
program specific symbols - and this might work for KOffice and other ODF
supporting applications without OOo background too.
IMO building such brand recognition for ODF will require not just
our use of the icons but will require an active and orchestrated
outreach to other groups and organizations from individuals within
the OpenOffice.org community. [again I saw some mail about such
actions ]
+1
I think it would serve OOo better, if we would agree upon a common
strategy first.
As for timing - outreach first seems to be what I am reading in a
number of emails, well - IMO - leading means getting out in front at
times.
You're right - but first we have to know if our leadership is done in
the best possible way. If we aren't convinced, other won't probably be
either.
The efforts put into this by those involved have been quite
evident and the product produced, both the graphics and the goals
attained, quite impressive to me. So sure seems like the wrong time
to stop for too long - again I'm very focused on this ODF mime type
branding.
I don't want to stop at all - we'll have to come to a decision about the
way we want to create and implement ODF icons very soon.
In order to go the next step on the way towards such a decision, I've
started to fill a spreadsheet with the main content of the postings here
and want to present the result of this marketing discussion to the
i-team and others at the central list on that topic:
[email protected].
To raise more attention than here at the end of a longer mail I post it
in a seperate mail.
Best regards
Bernhard
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