Why would it lose its meaning in an underdeveloped country?? I think you would have to travel pretty far to find a country where people didn't know the meaning of 0 and 1. And if you where even able to find a country that didn't know 0 from 1, didn't have engineers and didn't have electricity they wouldn't need a power button anyway :-) Btw, check out the symbol used on the power button on the One Laptop Per Child.
I've thought a little bit about why I react to this discussion. I agree that the symbol is very engineer-ish, not especially intuitive and not particularly good looking. But as an IxD I jump at ANY chance to build on prior knowledge, things people know. This symbol has been around for 40 years, is standardized, is culture-proof - interpreted in exactly the same way over the entire globe. Are there more than a handful of other symbols in the same league? The play/pause symbol qualifies I guess. Why would anyone want to mess with a symbol that is universally recognized? Why not try to fix the gazillion of things that are broken instead of breaking the few things that work? I don't get it. This is turning into a rant. Sorry! :-) Morten On Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:39:21, Loren Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This may be the simplest form of an "engineering driven interface" > ever encountered. 1 vs 0? Closed vs open circuit? Show that symbol > to someone in an undeveloped country and it loses its meaning. > > It's certainly easy to think of a more intuitive symbol using > natural phenomena rather than artificial. Use the sun: circle for > off, circle emitting rays for on. But I do wonder: how could such an > entrenched standard as the power symbol ever change? > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=26596 > > > ________________________________________________________________ > 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
