7 ms·

Anyone else doesn't like modern minimalist icon design? It looks boring.

rk06 8mo ago
icons should prioritize usability first,and design, intersting afterwards. if your users need billboards, then your job is to make great bill boards
- WWLink 8mo ago
  The current icons really aren't that good. Looking at apple specifically: The facetime and messages icons are almost completely indistinguishable. Get angry and say I'm blind, but so is a lot of the userbase - like legitimately, legally blind people. The camera icon on iOS is just a fucking camera lens with a grey background. No context. The calculator one is actually pretty good. The photos one is also bullshit lol.
  - what 8mo ago
    FaceTime is a video camera, messages is a speech bubble. They look nothing alike except they share the same colors?
    - dijit 8mo ago
      they share so much visual language that I always do a double-take when I am about to click on MacOS. You’re right that in isolation they are visually distinguished, but our eyes don’t see colour uniformly, and these icons do not exist in isolation. I guess frosted white on green is not a good combination for quickly discerning shape.
- wtetzner 8mo ago
  Sure, but it's not clear they're unrelated. Maybe interesting is necessary (but not sufficient) for usability? Also, the newer icons don't really indicate a word processing application. If anything, they're look like they might be for a drawing program. So regardless of interesting/abstract/whatever, it seems like a poor icon choice.
- just6979 8mo ago
  Usable icons _are_ a bit interesting. A bunch of same shapes with same-ish colors on a grid is NOT prioritizing usablity. It's prioritizing minimalism. The middle icons in that list are interesting enough that your visual cortex can pattern-match to your previous experience selecting that app without much conscious effort. The oldest is a bit much but at least still recognizable (not necessarily "well known", that's different), but the new ones are worse: so boring and generic that it takes actual conscious effort to select them from a sea of sameness.
fvgvkujdfbllo 8mo ago
Boring and same. Harder to use. It is for people who organize their books by the color of covers.
LtWorf 8mo ago
I still love the KDE Oxygen icon theme.

rk06 8mo ago

icons should prioritize usability first,and design, intersting afterwards. if your users need billboards, then your job is to make great bill boards

WWLink 8mo ago
The current icons really aren't that good. Looking at apple specifically: The facetime and messages icons are almost completely indistinguishable. Get angry and say I'm blind, but so is a lot of the userbase - like legitimately, legally blind people. The camera icon on iOS is just a fucking camera lens with a grey background. No context. The calculator one is actually pretty good. The photos one is also bullshit lol.
- what 8mo ago
  FaceTime is a video camera, messages is a speech bubble. They look nothing alike except they share the same colors?
  - dijit 8mo ago
    they share so much visual language that I always do a double-take when I am about to click on MacOS. You’re right that in isolation they are visually distinguished, but our eyes don’t see colour uniformly, and these icons do not exist in isolation. I guess frosted white on green is not a good combination for quickly discerning shape.
wtetzner 8mo ago
Sure, but it's not clear they're unrelated. Maybe interesting is necessary (but not sufficient) for usability? Also, the newer icons don't really indicate a word processing application. If anything, they're look like they might be for a drawing program. So regardless of interesting/abstract/whatever, it seems like a poor icon choice.
just6979 8mo ago
Usable icons _are_ a bit interesting. A bunch of same shapes with same-ish colors on a grid is NOT prioritizing usablity. It's prioritizing minimalism. The middle icons in that list are interesting enough that your visual cortex can pattern-match to your previous experience selecting that app without much conscious effort. The oldest is a bit much but at least still recognizable (not necessarily "well known", that's different), but the new ones are worse: so boring and generic that it takes actual conscious effort to select them from a sea of sameness.

fvgvkujdfbllo 8mo ago

Boring and same. Harder to use. It is for people who organize their books by the color of covers.

LtWorf 8mo ago

I still love the KDE Oxygen icon theme.