Notes View icons from Mary Beth Raven
Check out Mary Beth Raven's entry. The team is looking to update the view icons to make 'em look more modern. Points for a worthwhile target, guys, but this will fail in execution. You don't need to change the existing icon collection. That wrecks backwards compatibility and will force the re-creation of literally MILLIONS of customer training guides.
If you want to ADD the new collection, then by all means, I think that would be great! The same goes for the default action icons, as well! And it would be really great if you provided a resource to use these things that was better than trying to line up a matrix that you're staring at in the help interface, counting columns and rows to solve a math puzzle to figure out what icon you want.
But just shifting the icon set on your customers? WAY BAD MOVE.
Now, I was just going to say this as a reply over there, but I started having so much fun with detailing the specific icons, I had to make it my own blog entry. Make sure you have the two sets in front of you! :)
UPDATE: To try to make it easier to read.
UPDATE 2:
A) Am I losing my humor touch? Not a single LOL in the replies? Dear readers, I worked hard for your amusement, and you're all being so serious. Please tell me you're clicking the links I put in and that you're actually reading the comparisons ALL THE WAY TO THE END.
B) IBM's Chris Reckling responds over at Mary Beth's, but I fear an important remark will be lost in the noise over there: "Most of the changes that you are seeing relate to how those icons show up on the inbox or calendar. For example, the lightning bolt was for all day event - now it's the sun, which matches the icon on the form. The hand-waving person is for appointment, which in Notes 8 is a clock."
So it seems a lot of these are targetted at the mail template, which makes sense. But, as per usual (and I mean this as no slight on Chris), the core dev team is forgetting about all the work that's gone into thousands and thousands of custom applications which have been deployed at customer sites around the globe, and how what seems like a little sprucing up for the mail template is actually a major shift for an awful lot of Notes (and Domino -- these are embedded in the server renderred too!) shops.
Old 9: lightning, signifying speed, electricity, power, random chance.
New 9: what is that? A sunburst? Solar flare, maybe?
Old 10: string around finger (reminder) that was often confused for a gift with a bow on it.
New 10: alarm clock, thus REALLY confusing those who used it for a gift before. Is it "wake up and smell the coffee?"
Old 16: looks like a microphone.
New 16: looks like... well, this is a family blog, so I'll refrain.
New 31 & 32: actually more active as graphics, with the attempt to have more shading in them. It doesn't work. The old ones fit better in the more subdued palette.
Old 35: thankfully, rarely used.
New 35: absolutely illegible.
Old 39: question mark includes a general connotation for HELP.
New 39: pointer arrow, conveys insertion. That's WAAAAAAY different.
Old 44 & 45: actually looked like a corresponding phone on-hook and off-hook.
New 44 & 45: clearly not the same device in two different states. They're totally different devices now.
Old 46: pretty recognizable as a pager. Since no one actually USES pagers anymore...
New 46: more like... a Zune, maybe? How about, if you're dying to change that, making it a Blackberry?
Old 49: Thank goodness we're updating the 5 1/4" floppy drive to a... oh, wait... it's still a 5 1/4" floppy. Can we AT LEAST get a 3 1/2" instead? Not that it matters. No one uses them anyway, and this probably isn't displayed in any production application.
Old 50: ah, HERE'S the 3 1/2", sorry! Anyone think they can find a single instance of 49 in use, if 50 actually exists?
Old 61: key.
New 61: lock. I realize that these may seem like the same thing, but they're not. The KEY is a devices that opens a LOCK. You can't open a padlock with another padlock. Nor does a key open a key. (Well, with PHYSICAL keys at least!) Think of the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper, if that helps.
Old 63: calendar page, signifying a date.
New 63: party balloons, signifying inhaling helium so you talk like a chipmunk! (Or in later years, inhaling nitrous and playing Seven Minutes in Heaven)
Old 64: clock face, signifying time.
New 64: hourglass, which to every Windows user on earth, signifies WAITING.
Old 71: Medicine bag.
New 71: Ummmm... fun bag? The red cross symbol signifies medicine pretty much globally. The pink cross symbolizes... breast cancer treatment? I dunno
Old 74: lit match. Never was sure of the use of this one. Reminders when leaving the bathroom, perhaps?
New 74: Levitra logo? Guess that would be perfect for marking my email spam!
Old 80: universal "DO NOT" symbol, in attention-grabbing RED.
New 80: new pink, "well, if you wouldn't mind, we'd prefer you didn't" symbol.
Old 81: Big red X for DELETE or KILL or WRONG! It's Carlin's football!
New 81: The nice blue circle where you can take a swim later. It's Carlin's baseball!
Old 83 & 84: Thumbs up and thumbs down, two different states. Maybe that's a hand gesture that means "your mother was a hamster" in France or something, though.
New 83 & 84: Yet another "Go" check, but paired with a... "maybe" X? What's so evil about red? Do we live in The Village?
Old 88 - 90: To be frank, these always reminded me too much of Fido eyeing the poodle across the street.
New 88-90: Ah, NOW they just remind me of ESS from Johnny Dangerously. I have no idea if this is an improvement or what.
Old & New 91: Doesn't the TSA have something to say about this icon at this point? Does it make it illegal to take my Notes app on a plane? Can I squeeze in a reference to the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight? (Yeah baby! I think I just did!)
Old 92: Universal DO NOT ENTER.
New 92: Universal INSERT COIN HERE. Yeah... that's interCHANGable. (yuk yuk)
Old 93-95: Traffic light in 3 different states
New 93-95: Traffic light in 3 different states as seen by an old woman with cataracts.
Old 98-100: Rubies, emeralds and sapphires! I know these saw a lot of use, right? For those Notes-adaptations of Crash Bandicoot.
New 98-100: Lucky Charms marshmellows! YUM!
Old 114-120: Skittles?
New 114-120: Easter M&Ms. We're keepin it in the candy family!
Old 133: Yellow inbox
New 133: OOOOO!!! SHINY!!!!
Old 135-139: *cough* *cough* *sputter*
New 135-139: *cough**cough* *CHOKE*
Old 140-145: Microsoft product logos from 1995
New 140-144: *ahem* Microsoft product logos from 1995
New 145: Visio? What's that?
Old 146-149: Weather icons, indicating snow, rain, sunshine, or nuclear holocaust.
New 146-149: Weather icons, indicating snow, rain, sunshine, or nuclear holocaust, but in BLUE!
Old 158: Shaking hands, indicating brotherhood, agreement or a deal completed.
New 158: A guy about to be hit from behind by a speeding bus? Is this to encourage us to document our work?
Old 159: A gold star. Every child's reward for a job well done.
New 159: A green pentagon. Every call girl's reward for a job well done.
Old 160: A person waving, signifying greeting or attention-seeking.
New 160: Yet another clock face, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Old 163: A secret agent.
New 163: Loud Howard in profile.
Old 164: Locked mail
New 164: Loud Howard about to get hit by a bus.
Old 166: famous Groucho Marx glasses
New 166: Sock, the more distinguished mask of comedy, who will be easily confused with Edvard Munch's seminal work.
Old 169: A vague white hand in a red circle, indicating STOP
New 169: You tell me. I'm going with a fader control on an audio mixing panel.
Old 170: An ancient imprinted gold coin. I always imagined it was Caesar Augustus in profile on there.
New 170: The ghost of the guy that got hit by the bus, standing in front of his tombstone. I guess we're going Charles Dickens here.
Old & New 171 & 172: More totally irrelevant product icons.
Old 177: A pretty balloon!
New 177: A lone cell seeking to penetrate the egg in the desperate struggle for genetic propagation.
Old 184-186: A progression of being full, half-full (or -empty, depending on your point of view, of course), and empty.
New 184-186: A progression of rewinding really fast, a bit fast, and just playing backwards.
New 190: Guy about to be hit from behind by a baseball bat
New 191: Guy about to be hit from behind by a pillow
New 192-195: A progression of what every teenage girl DESPERATELY hopes she doesn't see on a home pregnancy test.
New 196: An out-of-service sign stuck to the front of the bus that plowed down our guy in 158.
Hope that wraps it up for you! If you have any contributions of your own, please don't hesitate to add them!
Comments
Posted by Ian Sherwood At 03:46:11 PM On 12/14/2006 |
Posted by Richard Moy At 06:22:03 PM On 12/14/2006 |
You're spot-on on the other ones.
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 07:58:37 AM On 12/15/2006 |
Posted by Christopher Byrne At 08:54:31 AM On 12/15/2006 |
57: Ink pot and quill? In a computer app?
6: ?? what is this?
7: A teddy bear? A hippo?
72: The parthenon?
Posted by Michelle O'Rorke At 06:11:06 AM On 12/15/2006 |
I am also in agreement. We used the red x etc all over the place and with the hundreds of db's in production this is an update task we don't need; especially for not discernable benefits.
The way to go is with a second set and reatin the existing ones.
Posted by Kezza At 08:49:26 PM On 12/14/2006 |
The amount of maintenance work that would be generated is staggering. And I'm talking about custom training materials for the thousands of custom apps out there, not Notes itself.
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 06:09:49 PM On 12/14/2006 |
83 & 84...since I work for the French, I will let you know that the symbol does NOT mean "your mother was a hamster". It means "your father smelled of elderberries!". I'm glad I could clear that up.
Posted by Mike Lazar At 05:54:16 PM On 12/14/2006 |
Thanks!
Posted by Kevin Pettitt At 04:13:40 PM On 12/14/2006 |
For example: You have a custom application. It sends email messages, where _ViewIcon=83 (the old thumbs-up icon). Users with Notes8 mail will see a different icon, since that database uses a different icon pallet.
IBM must add their new icons to the existing icon pallet, not create an alternate pallet.
Posted by Brian Green At 10:20:20 PM On 12/19/2006 |
Such a change would require us to create multiple versions of our applications (something we seek to avoid at all costs) and have to maintain them for several years.
This significantly increases our ongoing support, maintenance and testing costs.
I thought Lotus prided themselves on backward compatibility.
Posted by Ian Randall At 12:47:13 AM On 12/18/2006 |
New 3: the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man { Link }
Old 4: a group of people
New 4: a group of Stay Puft Marshmallow men
Old & New 149: a red maple tree in its Fall color
Old & New 156: a pot of soup?
Old & New 161: an iPod with a musical note?
Old 183: a white flag
New183: a blue flag that is much smaller than the other flags
Posted by Charles Robinson At 04:24:28 PM On 12/14/2006 |
LOL! Nathan, your humor was not lost on me. Anyone who's anxiously looked over their partner's shoulder, awaiting a result one way or the other will recognize the Clearblue Easy: { Link }
For what it's worth, I totally agree about the icon changes. When I saw the change of 81 from a red X to a blue circle with a line through it, I got a pit in my stomach. How many views, icon keys, and help files am I going to have to update there? Wow. That's really short sighted.
Posted by Keil Wilson At 12:58:31 PM On 12/18/2006 |
"That wrecks backwards compatibility and will force the re-creation of literally MILLIONS of customer training guides. "
Why would this wreck backwards compatibility? These icons have the same names - your applications will work just fine without touching a thing. Come on, Nathan, you know that.
The training guides will need to be recreated anyway - Notes 8 is a huge paradigm shift in usage, and those training manuals will be rewritten regardless.
The comments themselves about the aesthetics of the icons I can see (at least on some of them) - but I think you're overreacting just a bit on this one.
Rock
Posted by Rock At 05:54:56 PM On 12/14/2006 |
I'm in agreement. I use view icons heavily in my apps. It's a great visual notification of certain criteria in documents that users rely on, and it lets me save view clutter at the same time by being able to use a tiny icon instead of a whole different category, or text column.
I DO like the "updating" of the icons. Changing the color of an existing icon to a softer, cleaner color I think is great. This worked well for Windows XP, when Microsoft made the "My Computer", "My Documents", and "My Network Places" icons a bit trendier. Users had no trouble figuring out what they were, they just looked better.
I DON'T like the replacing of the icons. Like I said, I rely on them heavily to tell users important information about their workflows/documents. Yikes!
Posted by Jess Stratton At 10:11:04 AM On 12/15/2006 |
But I'm sorry Rocky, the applications will NOT just "work fine".
It's pretty simple. Look at icon 115 on both charts. If I have an application currently using 115 it's a big red dot. That's letting my users know that there may be an issue with that document. It's a "red light" - signifying potential emergency.
Oh, but let's just change that to a light blue dot which, of course, signifies the same thing as a red dot!
Many others have been documented here. Maybe some have had too much light blue kool-aid and were told that it was actually red...
Posted by Chris Whisonant At 09:36:52 AM On 12/15/2006 |
People would go nuts.
I like that the icons are new, but I think they are different in colours enough, they all seem to blend very prettily, but not one stands out more than any other. With the old one's it was very easy to pick a bold one and it would stand out to indicate something important in the view.
So I have to agree with Nathan and disagree with Rocky. This will have impact, especially when the meaning of an icon can totally have changed.
The hand being held up is now a clock, sure that works for a calendar, but what about an application where the hand up was a an indicator of a customers incoming question request in the workflow process etc? If you have to hover an icon to see it's meaning you might as well put text and remove the icon anyway.
Posted by Carl Tyler At 06:40:22 PM On 12/15/2006 |
It comes down to your experience in dealing with grassroots users. Users are not uniform, and will react differently. Some will not even notice the change, others will freeze, unsure how to proceed. Unfortunately the latter does not tend toward zero, YMMV.
The significant changes alone are cause for alarm (80-84 etc.). But I forsee that even the muted colouring will cause confusion in a lot of installations. Reds are now muted ambers, so there go the colour cues for one.
If a company was unlucky enough to develop an application on a limited budget and not have a herd of graphic artists available to roll their own, they will have relied on the standard icons.
Increased help desk calls, the need for pro-active education etc. And that's just on the muted colours. Development required for the major changes. It may be 5 minutes, but again, not zero. It all adds up in the end and the total cost gets weighed up when decisions are made.
Maybe Nathan plays it up a bit, but he's trying to get an important message accross. IBM is far too inclined to assume ideals and forget that reality bites.
@Nathan: Family friendly? Does that mean you're finally starting one?
Posted by Colin Macdonald At 04:10:10 AM On 12/15/2006 |