What an interesting little journey into the depths of the ISO/IEEE Power Control User Interface standard this topic started. The links that have been posted here have been great, and I'm glad to see this topic has been visited time and time again in various forums over the years, and that I'm not the first person to have questioned it.
(It certainly goes to prove once again that sometimes the most seemingly simple functions can be deviously shrouded in all sorts of complications.) The reference to the standard that the Wikipedia link has four different symbols for 'power on', 'power off', 'power on/off toggle' and 'power on/standby toggle'. Whether correctly implemented or not, it's the last of the above symbols (the 'standby toggle') that we see most commonly applied to refer to 'power'. According to the original standard, as Morten has pointed out, the symbol I'm referring to would only be correctly implemented if it was strictly referencing a toggle between "standby" and "power". The "power on" symbol is simply a single vertical bar. Well, the interface I am currently designing is a touchpanel which resides in a lecturn for a large, publicly available conference room. The user will be anybody who rents the space for a presentation, and they will not have the luxury of being trained in how to use the system. The complexity of all the equipment needs to be completely invisible to them, and the "Power on" symbol on the only available button perfectly satisfied this requirement. Until, of course, I realized that symbol would 'break' the standard. It's not a toggle. The correct symbol is the vertical bar for that function. I quickly redesigned the interface to be the vertical bar and held a quick and dirty survey (ie: anybody walking past my workstation): Nobody had any idea what the button meant, (one person said "I dunno, is that the Eye of Sauron?") yet when I showed them the other 'wrong' interface, they instantly recognized the "standby toggle" to mean "power". I read the addendum on the standard, I was incredibly relieved to find that there has been some pushes to incorporate the 'standby toggle' to simply mean "power" if possible. If there are safety considerations in the equipment you are controlling where it's absolutely essential to indicate whether or not the hardware is still being supplied by power there's a need to use the 4-state standard and be very clear about the differences between 'power on', 'power off', 'power on/off toggle' and 'power on/standby', but "when possible" it suggests using the 'standby toggle' to simply mean power. Phew. Here's another concise link for some of the same topic: http://eepn.com/Locator/Products/Index.cfm?Ad=1&Ad=1&ArticleID=31710 Shaun On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 3:38 PM, Morten Hjerde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Id say that the only awful thing about about the power symbol is that it > is > misused by designers who presumably don't like the "look" of it. Its like > saying I don't like the letter A because visually it doesn't say "aaaaa" > to > me. > > The symbol is a standard. Power as such does not have any visual component > so the world has agreed on a fairly easily recognizable symbol and people > have just learned the meaning of it. > > The symbol consists of a "1" which means "on" state and a "0" that means > "off" state. If the "1" is inside a "0" it means toggle on/off. The symbol > you describe is the standby symbol. You may of course invent your own, but > if you are going to use the power symbol, please use it correctly. Check > wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_symbol > > Morten > > > > On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 11:58 PM, Shaun Bergmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > Interesting. > > Unless I was designing something with the understanding that my ENTIRE > > audience was comprised of electrical engineers, I doubt I would think > this > > is a very good design. > > Which brings me back to 'How did this awful thing get to be so > widespread > > and popular?" > > Was there a particular product that used it once, way back in the dark > > ages, > > that injected it's branding and just beat the world population into > > understanding that "this means power"? > > > > On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 2:43 PM, William Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > From electrical engineering. Its a closed circuit. > > > > > > will evans > > > user experience architect > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > 617.281.1281 > > > > > > > > > On Feb 27, 2008, at 5:37 PM, "Shaun Bergmann" > > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > A discussion came up at the office today that got me wondering. > > > > Do any of you know the history of the 'Power' Icon? You know the > > > > one: The > > > > circle with the vertical bar pointing up and overlapping the top > > > > edge of the > > > > circle. > > > > > > > > This icon was being incorporated into an interface and the argument > > > > was made > > > > that "not everybody is going to know what that icon means" > > > > > > > > That's totally possible. If anything stands out as a good example of > > > > the > > > > statement that there are no intuitive interfaces -- all interfaces > are > > > > learned -- it's this icon. The only reason people are going to know > > > > that > > > > it's the power button is because they know it's the power button. > > > > > > > > I looked at it's design from a fresh perspective today and really > > > > have to > > > > question WHY it's become so prevalent? Visually, it doesn't say > > > > "power" to > > > > me. Where'd this thing come from? > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > > > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > > > > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > > > > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > > > > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > > > > > -- > Morten Hjerde > http://sender11.typepad.com > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
