[Tango-artists] Performance icons

[Richard Hughes]

On Sun, 2006-11-26 at 19:59 +0100, Jakub Steiner wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-11-26 at 13:47 +0000, Richard Hughes wrote:
> > Hey,
> > 
> > I'm working on an experimental applet to integrate with
> > gnome-power-manager to allow better feedback and control of CPU
> > frequency scaling. I'm planning an applet with the following drop-down
> > menu:
> > 
> > Maximum performance
> > Maximum power saving
> > Automatic power saving
> > 
> > Now, I really want icons to convey these concepts, but I'm stuck for
> > ideas.
> 
> Hi Richard,
> as someone who pretty much lives from creating icons I have to say --
> don't be afraid NOT to use an icon. An icon is meant to communicate
> functionality faster than a block of text. If there is no obvious
> metaphor for this, stretching it and making an artificial icon nobody
> will understand will not make the interface better. We are currently
> overusing icons in the interface, especially menus :/. 

Yes, agree. I'm thinking of playing with them as an applet policy type
thing as well, but I'm not sure about that.

> > I'll also be including a panel icon of the current CPU speed, which I'm
> > thinking to use the existing cpufreq-applet icons, and example of which
> > is attached. I'm not sure if better concepts for CPU frequency scaling
> > exist (rather than a microchip) - again, ideas welcomed.
> 
> I believe somebody (Lokheed?) had the icons in tango style. If this is
> to be communicated at all, the status icon looks alright to me. I'll be
> happy to tweak these quickly if nobody goes for the low hanging fruit.

If you've already got them as a GPL/creative commons licensed set, then
yes please!

Richard.