[Tango-artists] Search/Find and Zoom Metaphors

[Ryan Collier]

What if we use the same metaphor "magnifying glass" but differentiate
the icons some how for each?  I mean, zoom in could have a "+" symbol,
zoom out could have a " -" symbol, and search could have a file/document
behind it. Wait, don't we do that already?

I mean, I think the magnifying glass represents "looking". Looking with
a "+" means look closer, looking with a "-" means looking farther,
looking with a document means search document. Maybe we can even take it
one step further and have a magnifying glass over a computer for general
system wide searches.

Regards,

>>> Tuomas Kuosmanen <tigert at tigert.com> 1/4/2006 2:50 am >>>
On Tue, 2006-01-03 at 13:46 -0400, Steven Garrity wrote:
> Evandro Fernandes Giovanini wrote:
> > I could be wrong but I think I read somewhere that Windows Vista
is
> > using an icon almost identical to the OS X one. If that's the case
then
> > IMHO it's best to leave the Tango metaphor as it is. :)
> 
> Looks like you're right about Windows Vista (see top right in this 
> screenshot): 
> http://bink.nu/photos/news_article_images/images/9994/original.aspx 

I am not sure if vista does this intentionally, but one kind-of-lame
way
to differentiate those would be to use a left-handed icon for search
and
right-handed ones for zoom. It would still be the same metaphor, but
could it be different enough to let us use the same basic metaphor for
two things? It would at least let one tell those apart with quick
glance.

Also, the "search" icon very often is paired with a keyword field - it
might make the issue smaller in practice. Zoom vs Search is not just
"eek, they both use the same icon" - there are differences too in the
way the icons are used. We need more standard "widget terminology"
like
the search field ( [______Q] ) - using the same style for same
functionality in different applications will help too. That way the
familiarity is bigger than just the metaphor in the icon itself.

I agree that search -> looking  glass is pretty common in computer
stuff.

//Tuomas


_______________________________________________
Tango-artists mailing list
Tango-artists at lists.freedesktop.org 
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/tango-artists