[Tango-artists] whither addressbook?

[Jon A. Cruz]

On Apr 14, 2006, at 8:49 PM, Nathan Willis wrote:

> So?  Does that statement add something?  Do addessbook applications  
> suddenly disappear because not every person on the planet would  
> come up with identical metaphors and icon expectations when locked  
> in isolation with a pen and paper?  Seriously, we can refrain from  
> rehashing the theory of UIs and icons in general.  The real problem  
> is that *none* of this addresses the inconsistency of the "apps"  
> icons -- let's be blunt: are we content to have /apps/ populated  
> haphazardly and by historical whim, or are we choosing them based  
> on some genuine criteria?


I think the bottom line here is that it's being left to the apps  
themselves.

One of the strongest arguments in support of that *is* the address  
book.  :-)

I'd given the example of why. In once case the "Application that  
handles the address book entries" is an Application called "Address  
Book". On my computer, the icon for that does look much like a  
physical address book. However, in a different case the program that  
handles address book entries is called "Microsoft Outlook" and is not  
a stand-alone address book program. Its icon looks strange. And, yes,  
in that case the "addressbook application" has disappeared. *Poof*!  
it's gone. Unlike OS X, it just doesn't exist on Windows.

And if you want, you can just replace "Microsoft Outlook" with  
"Evolution" and you see about the same thing App and icon-wise.


I'm not trying to tangle with the subtleties of which app icons are  
standard and which aren't (history, legacy, etc), but rather just  
answering your point about there already being one, which in turn  
conveyed a blending of the two concepts.

(Oh, and on this point, aside from working on many different OS's and  
platforms over the years that have addressed this, I've also worked  
on just this sort of issue for many non-standard devices, including  
iPaq and Symbian handhelds)