[438] in Athena User Interface
My comments on the proposed icons
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Cattey)
Wed Sep 20 18:36:43 2000
Message-ID: <ktmHjrtz0001Rr0r14@mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 22:36:39 +0000 ()
From: Bill Cattey <wdc@MIT.EDU>
To: aui@MIT.EDU
CC: sbjones@MIT.EDU, debby@MIT.EDU
Debbie Levinson just sent me examples of the icons being considered.
I'm afraid that my reactions to them were not positive. Perhaps we can
try some usability testing to confirm, but I am very much concerned that
the direction the graphic designers have gone is antagonistic to usability.
I think NEITHER of the proffered concepts in the for Xterm are
anywhere near as good as the one shown in
http://web.mit.edu/beland/aui-pics/new-look.png. My rationale is
that the user is going to want to know what "terminal session" program
to run, and icons that have a picture of video terminal do a great job
of communicating that. I could make no sense of what relationship the
geometric shapes with the X on them had to do with the function of
typing commands at a computer.
I guess I can understand how some users may be confused and think that
the Xterm as picture of a terminal is for setting TV monitor settings, I
feel that the other two choices offered are just too hard to associate
with functionality. I feel the baby has been thrown out with the
bathwater.
So I'd say that I "very strongly dislike" both concepts for Xterm offered.
I think the picture of the keyboard button with logout written on it may
be slightly superior to the other proffered alternatives. Although the
Exit sign is cute, there are too many programs that have menu commands
called "Exit" instead of "Quit". I strongly fear we'll end up getting lots of
help desk calls complaining that they tried to exit the program they
were running by pressing the "Exit" icon but instead they got logged out.
The picture of a video terminal with a moon and stars, unless it has the
word "Logout" labeling it, just makes no sense as a logout button, so
the one in http://web.mit.edu/beland/aui-pics/new-look.png is not as
good as the proferred logout "key" icon.
So I'd say that I "feel" that we should go with the picture of a logout key.
In spite of its lack of international appeal.
-wdc
