Public bug reported:

Binary package hint: human-icon-theme

(Filed as per the UDS-Karmic "Death by a 100 paper cuts" session, where
the issue was cited as and agreed to be an example of a design "paper
cut".)

The icon used in the button that toggles the Nautilus address bar
between icon and text modes does not illustrate the function of the
button. Instead, it suggests that the function may be something related
to writing things on paper, the digital analogues of which would be text
editing or word processing, for which we have preinstalled software that
is to be launched in a different way (i.e. going to the "Applications"
menu), and (it was cited that) user testing has shown people tend to
click this button when prompted to write something. It's also worth
noting that The "Designing Effective Icons" article of the GNOME HIG [1]
refers to an effectively identical variation of this icon as "A
functionally suggestive icon for a word processor".

A toggle button with pressed / not pressed states is not ideal for
conveying the information required of the button in this case. We don't
want to convey whether the bar is "in text mode or not"; we want to
convey precisely which of the two available modes it is in. The GNOME
HIG also recommends against using a single toggle button in isolation
[2].

The solution would be to either modify Nautilus, preferably upstream, to
have a regular stateless button that displays a "Switch to text mode"
icon when in button mode, and vice versa, and design those respective
icons, and/or (maybe as a temporary measure until that happens) design a
replacement icon that does not suggest word processing functionality and
better illustrates the current one.

[1] http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/icons-design.html.en
[2] 
http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/controls-toggle-buttons.html.en

** Affects: human-icon-theme (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Affects: nautilus (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Also affects: nautilus (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

-- 
Nautilus location bar toggle icon implies unrelated function
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/382626
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