Hi Graham, On Thu, Feb 07, 2008 at 12:39:53PM +1300, Graham Lauder wrote: > On Thursday 07 February 2008 05:17:35 Christian Lohmaier wrote: > > On Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 10:30:25PM +0100, :murb: [maarten brouwers] wrote: > > > [...] > > > A quick mockup of some icons (these definitely need to be tweaked): > > > > > > http://www.murb.nl/extern/openoffice.org/iconsactionstatement/ > > [...] > > But apart from that I really think that the proposal will benefit from > > any type of icons. > > Sorry but I have to disagree. Icons are only useful for speeding the > progress > of returning users. A sign is only useful when the meaning of that sign is > plain. Unclear signage simply leads to confusion and people taking to much > time to interpret the meaning of the signs.
"any" should not imply "some random image". > A good example is here locally in NZ. Signs in Maori mean nothing to a > German > tourist. Putting pictures in their place would be equally meaningless for > that onetime user. Never been to a bathroom before? I wouldn't be able to tell whether it is for ladies or gentlemen if it was written in Maori, but if it has a pictogram (=icon) on it, I'd immediately know what door to take. > The sign, the translation or the picture only become > useful with familiarity. Sure. And those phrases are so common, so wiedepread that there is already a good metaphor for each of the points. > The new arrival arrives at the page and sees some vague symbolism but he > would > have to read the action statements to give meaning to that graphic. No. He knows a download-arrow, since he has visited other sites before. He recognizes the other symbols as well, since those look familiar already. And I still oppose that text links are easier to understand. I heavily disagree here. Text only is boring, not-innovative, oldfashioned, etc is another position towards such a minimalistic page without any eye candy. > The question is: "Is not having icons a barrier" answer is No No. The question is: "Does adding icons help people to navigate faster" My answer is: Hell, yeah! (if the icon matches the meaning). There is good reason why traffic signs are all shaped (& colored) according to their meaning and are not all uniform with text on them. And the question is: "Does adding icons help making the page less boring?" OK, the wording is bad as it contains the opinion of the person who asks the question and suggests an answer implicitly - but everybody is free to have his own opinion... People voted for this design, so that's what will get live. ciao Christian -- NP: Korn - Fake --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
