<story><title>Gmail Icons are Hard</title><url>https://grumpy.website/post/0Px1O7Ukl</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Pxtl</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve said it over and over again:&lt;p&gt;I speak english, not pictogram.  The only platform I&amp;#x27;ve ever seen that got icons right was Windows Phone, because it had a hard-coded &amp;quot;...&amp;quot; button that always did the same thing:&lt;p&gt;1) Show all the labels, and&lt;p&gt;2) Show all the additional text-labeled (non-icon) actions that were hidden by default.&lt;p&gt;So the first thing you did when faced with an unfamiliar set of icons was touch the &amp;quot;...&amp;quot; button which showed you the full list of things you could do.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wlesieutre</author><text>I do speak pictogram, but only the ones with previously established meanings. Bathroom sign? No problem. Box with a down arrow, no. But I do know Apple&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;bankers box&amp;quot; icon for archive. Having seen actual boxes like that for archiving old papers, combined with having used Mail for years, it makes sense to me.&lt;p&gt;That first part though, where I know what a bankers box is used for, really helps make the icon connect. I think this is important, but at the same time, it&amp;#x27;s difficult because it&amp;#x27;s not universal. The &amp;quot;floppy disk&amp;quot; save icon has already turned into an arbitrary symbol for younger generations, and I expect the bankers box is well on its way (if not there already). Maybe FBI evidence rooms in TV shows will help it hold out.&lt;p&gt;Floppy disk has an advantage because at least it&amp;#x27;s consistent across a ton of software. If you make up an icon and use it in one interface and then redesign that interface again in 4 years, you have a much harder time getting people to attach meaning to it consistently.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s the visual equivalent of a text button with &amp;quot;Mloroab&amp;quot; on it. Yeah I speak English, but I don&amp;#x27;t know what that does.</text></comment>
<story><title>Gmail Icons are Hard</title><url>https://grumpy.website/post/0Px1O7Ukl</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Pxtl</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve said it over and over again:&lt;p&gt;I speak english, not pictogram.  The only platform I&amp;#x27;ve ever seen that got icons right was Windows Phone, because it had a hard-coded &amp;quot;...&amp;quot; button that always did the same thing:&lt;p&gt;1) Show all the labels, and&lt;p&gt;2) Show all the additional text-labeled (non-icon) actions that were hidden by default.&lt;p&gt;So the first thing you did when faced with an unfamiliar set of icons was touch the &amp;quot;...&amp;quot; button which showed you the full list of things you could do.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Mithorium</author><text>I was interested to see what that looked like and found&lt;p&gt;Opening down:
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.mobiletechworld.com&amp;#x2F;wordpress&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;Appbarstitch.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.mobiletechworld.com&amp;#x2F;wordpress&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Opening up:
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.stack.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;gZdjo.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.stack.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;gZdjo.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I like it</text></comment>