[2545] in Release_7.7_team
AUI Icon Status
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (t. belton)
Wed Jan 17 15:16:23 2001
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 15:16:15 -0500 (EST)
From: "t. belton" <tbelton@MIT.EDU>
To: <aui@mit.edu>, <release-team@mit.edu>
cc: Debby Levinson <debby@mit.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.30L.0101171455140.15035-100000@iphigenia.mit.edu>
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Okay, there's been a mess here.
1. The Athena folks are under the impression that they are waiting to see
icons from the PSB folks.
2. The PSB folks are under the impression that they have created the two
icons which were specifically requested, and that those icons have been
seen by various AUI/Athena folks, although not yet delivered in final
format.
3. There's some confusion about the exact scope of work requested from the
PSB. To say the least.
4. The two icons that HAVE been redesigned have had mixed/limited
usability results and no one on the Athena/AUI side has confirmed their
suitability - that I know of.
Here's how this came about.
On 26 July, Mr. Beland asked the PSB for this:
>Items we know we want:
[...]
> - Icons for the programs in the below list. These will nominally be
> displayed at 48x48 pixels (PNG format, with alpha channel) but can
> be made as large as 80 pixels. Creating 48x48 and 96x96 versions
> should be sufficient to start. We will need two versions, one with
> the title of the program overlayed on top of the icon, and one with
> no text. Both should used a limited color set.
>
> - gnome-terminal preferably featuring the text "athena%" in the
> graphics with the title "xterm"
> - Netscape
> - Emacs (yak-like creature)
> - Gnome Control Center
> - Help
> - Athena Menu (note problem with overlayed triangle)
> - Gnome menu (no text version needed)
> - Lock screen
> - Logout
>
> The logout button definitely needs a new graphic that is more
> obvious; xterm probably does, too. The others don't necessarily
> need anything terribly new unless you think they do.
I interpret this as "Give us a new xterm and exit icon, and maybe a slight
facelift for the other icons." Given that the "gnu" icon has proven
TOTALLY unrecognizable by novice users, I'd say that it needed more than a
slight facelift, but the above is exactly what he asked.
He also said:
>Things we might want later:
>
> - An icon for the new mail reader (probably Evolution) that's
> consistent with the others
> - An icon for the new file manager (probably Nautilus) that's
> consistent with the others
> - Small icons (20x20 or less) for programs in the menu system,
> without text overlays
> - Custom graphics for new Sawfish theme
The PSB interpreted the "later" literally and did not act on these.
On 1 August, another email from Beland seemed to confirm the PSB's idea
that only the two SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED icons were to be redrawn:
>Also, we've given some consideration to changing the non-confusing
>icons on the task bar. We've decided that it's desirable to keep the
>default icons, to keep our documentation and code as consistent as
>possible with the Gnome mainline. This reduces the number of icons
>that need to be redone to the logout button and possibly the
>gnome-terminal icon (we're waiting on results from usability testing
>to determine whether or not the "athena%" prompt does actually need to
>be pictured there).
So. The PSB made a couple of new exit icons, and a couple of new xterm
icons. They then showed these icons to several people as an ad-hoc
usability test. The results of this test, along with the new designs for
those icons, can be seen at
<http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/icons/auicons.html>
and it is my understanding that several Athena/AUI people have seen this
page and commented on it.
The PSB folks, by the by, feel that if you're going to redesign one or two
icons you should redesign them all and thereby get a consistent feel
across the board - something that many of us on the Athena side would
agree with - but to date, by their records, they have not been asked to do
this. They have been asked to create two icons, period.
The PSB is ready to make art for us, but we have to know what we want them
to do, and we have to be very specific about what we are asking them to
do. I'm not going to blame them for this because - with apologies to
Beland - I think we've been sending mixed signals.
- Are the new exit and xterm icons good enough?
- Which other icons do we want redesigned?
Let's figure it out; then I can go back to them and tell them EXACTLY
what we want.
-todd
