Re: Re: [libreoffice-design] MimeType icons - first draft ready for discussion

On Monday 13 December 2010 23:02:34 Christoph Noack wrote:

[...]
> @ Björn (if you read this): 

Of course I do. At least scanning mails, to be honest. You digged so deep into 
the topic that I did not feel I would manage to catch up - esp. seeing the 
tight timeline. But still scanning closely enough to see my name in mails :)

> Does it make sense to check some of the
> icons, e.g. I'm still unsure, which template icons people are most
> comfortable with. Looking at the ODF icons, they introduced some more
> characteristics to distinguish them from the default document icons.

Answering your question: A test would make sense if we have alternatives for 
the icons. Help me if there are any - but I can't find them. If we have them I 
am very happy to set-up a test (not a lot of work) - then we can decide if it 
makes any sense to publish this test or not.

But apart from a test... Your mail has been the trigger for me to dig a bit 
deeper into the disussion and I would like to give my 2 cents to it: 

I have done three live tests (yes: not representative) in my company with the 
current design. I showed a couple of people this page: 

http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/User:ChristophNoack/Initial_MIME_Icons#Proposals_by_Christoph

I explained to them what application icons are and what template icons are. I 
had them look at the icons for about a minute. Then I asked them to explain 
how to differentiate application from template icons. The result: All they 
remembered was the coloured background. 

This does not suprise me as colour is the visually dominant element in the 
design - but it is not used in a consistent way (sep. when the icons are 
getting smaller). 

So, how can we get to a solution? I think we could try to formulate some rules 
for the design of the icons (perhaps you have them already? - I don't know and 
a quick search did not bring any up...). So here is my suggestion for the 
needed rules in the icon design:

1. Show that it is LO: 
Triangle to the top right is a good and distinguishable code - keep that.

2. Code the type of application: 
Clear and easy to recognize icon (e.g. line, table) works well - even in small 
sizes. Colour (type of) is a good hint, but needs to be better distinguishable 
for the colourblinded and should never be used as a primary code. Current 
state of colouruse is probably good enough if used only as secondary 
(supporting) code.

3. Code application vs. template: 
This is a tough one, because there already is a lot of information in the icon 
up to here. The code could be to use colour (yes / no) as primary code for 
this. Template icons would not have any color at all (aka grey), while 
application icons are colourfull - but this would make colour a primary code 
again (at least only in terms of colour vs. no-colour and not putting any 
information into the colour itself). Perhaps something more obvious would be 
more helpful, like inverting the icon? Do you have any better suggestions? 

With explicit rules like these it should be easy to develop the according 
icons - and then we have material to test ;)

Is there anything else we need to code into the icons? What about math, 
masterdoc and macros?

Best,
Björn

-- 
www.OpenSource-Usability-Labs.com

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