[Tango-artists] Help for younger/international users?

[Jakub Steiner]

On Thu, 2005-11-10 at 22:03 +1300, John C Barstow wrote:
> I've been watching the Tango project since it was announced, 
> periodically checking the icon gallery. I'm very impressed with what 
> I've seen, but I have a few quibbles about some of the items, that might 
> reflect the fact that I'm neither American or that terribly old. Of 
> course it might just be that I'm out of touch. :)
> 
> To start with, my daughter has *NEVER* seen a 3.5 floppy. I haven't seen 
> one or owned a computer that has a floppy drive for about a decade (used 
> to build my own machines most of the time). Is it really appropriate as 
> the document-save icon?

Hi John,
we've had numerous discussions about this and we're more than inclined
to drop the floppy. What we need is a usable replacement for the floppy
metaphore. We had a number of suggestions and the best so far were a
folder with an arrow pointing towards it (which wouldn't be easily
distinguishable if we kept the current document-open folder icon) and
the drive icon instead of the folder. This remains an open issue.


> The input-gaming icon vaguely resembles a joystick (maybe it's based on 
> an arcade machine?). I doubt my daughter will ever recognise it as a 
> game controller. I would expect to see a gamepad or a more realistic 
> depiction, given how most of the other icons resemble real hardware.

Good suggestion. A better implementation of a joystick could also work.
Any takers for this?

> I expected emblem-photos to be somehow connected to cameras or images; 
> image-x-generic for example looks like a framed photo to me and a good 
> candidate if it wasn't already in use.  Instead we get a pill bottle 
> with a label being applied?  Am I missing something?

It's another case of a dying technology, and apparently not very
obviously drawn ;) It was supposed to be a film roll. Again, not feeling
strongly about this ...

> The input-mouse icon looks eerily like a Microsoft brand mouse. Maybe we 
> could choose a more generic model for the icon? Or at least a model from 
> a less hostile manufacturer?

Personaly I don't see the resemblance a problem. MS mouse is one of the
most common mice on the market. The computer monitor was also modeled
after my own Sony monitor. I view SONY just about as evil as Microsoft. 

> I don't get the connection between shirts and desktop themes 
> (preferences-desktop-theme) or the connection between paint and 
> wallpaper (preferences-desktop-wallpaper). Surely in the latter case the 
> concepts are diametrically opposed?

That one I quite like. Changing themes is like changing skins, but I
thought a few shirts may be more appropriate than, you know.. ;) 
I'm not sure what you mean about the wallpaper. We had a gnome icon of a
wallpaper but it failed to communicate the message as well as the
paint/brush.

> I was also wondering if the red-and-white life ring was internationally 
> recognised - I personally would have thought a question mark more intuitive.

That's actually about to be committed. Thanks for the feedback.

cheers

-- 
Jakub Steiner <jimmac at novell.com>
Novell, Inc.