Iconitis

[Gerald Hawkins]

>From article <1930 at dataio.Data-IO.COM>, by bright at Data-IO.COM (Walter Bright):
> In article <28684 at ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> jas at ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Jim Shankland) writes:
>>That's tantalizing.  Would you be willing to elaborate a little on what
>>you think makes a good graphical interface, what's a good example and
>>why, and what's wrong with the IBM PC keyboard and Macintosh icons?
> 
> What's wrong with icons is not necessarily icons, but what I've called
> "iconitis". This is the religious fervor by which an icon is invented
> for every command, because icons are 'better'. ...
> [suggests using English words instead of icons] ...
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I, too, hate overuse of icons.  I believe they make switching between
computer systems _MUCH_ more difficult than it should be.  They cause
mistakes for the new user.  For example, here at Convergent, a lightning
bolt stands for "erase".  In PaintShow a picture of an eraser does the
task.  In ten other programs you will find ten (maybe only nine) other
icons.

The obvious upside of icons is that they make the computer just as usable
no matter what country the machine is used in ... except that they
usually blow the language independence by having menus or questions pop
up when you use certain icons.  It also makes things nice for functional
illiterates.

So--icons are great for driving in Europe (you don't need to learn 11
languages in 7 weeks), or for cash registers at McDonald's ... but leave
them off anything else unless you have a darn good reason for creating
them.  All the good ones are taken anyhow.



"	I don't want to imply I'm underpaid, but ...
	Last time I took my paycheck to the bank to be cashed, the teller
	asked me, 'How would you like that, sir, Heads, or Tails?'	"

Jerry		( jerry at starfish.Convergent.COM )
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