In any case, once one learns that they are a 0 / 1, they must then find
the
proper mapping. Which one is off, and which is on? 0 should be off, 1
should be on, but I can't say whether that transfers across cultures. I
understand that the concept of zero has different backgrounds across the
There seem to be two things here:
1) When should we set/accept/challenge standards?
2) How much how people have to learn to interact with these abstract
ideas that are so new in our evolution, and how much should be
metaphor?
Personally, I would want to go with the
-Original Message-
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Power icon
At least one person thought that it was a cannonball-bomb with a fuse.
Other people wondered have wondered if the icon looked on or off.
--
Jody Tate
Web Developer - UW Network Systems
http://staff.washington.edu/jtate
Some great user research on power icons was done by the group who developed
the IEEE 1621, the Power Control User Interface standard.
(offical name:*Standard for User Interface Elements in Power Control of
Electronic Devices Employed in Office/Consumer Environments)*
**
See
Alex, great questions, and more importantly, what I would consider the
proper attitude. And I also like how you have presented your perspective as
a personal one and not pretend to speak for entire populations or all of
humankind. I think this is one good way to make progress in a contentious
Until I joined this conversation I had not noticed the difference between
the power on/off and standby symbols. Yes, now I can see the difference,
but I had no idea before that the two were significantly different. And I
was trained as a (mechanical) engineer.
It's far too subtle a difference
On Feb 28, 2008, at 6:32 PM, Murli Nagasundaram wrote:
Until I moved to the US from India in 1986, I don't recall having
encountered the 0/1 power symbol more than a couple of times.
Given that the symbols were defined in the early 1970s, and it's now
2008 where they've finally seen the
On Feb 29, 2008, at 9:59 AM, Bill DeRouchey wrote:
I'd rather spend time trying to rethink the Setup or Configure icon
that is usually displayed as gears or a wrench/spanner. To me, the
latter implies that my product is broken and I need to fix it. That's
definitely the wrong metaphor. There
I think it's flippin me the bird.
On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 9:57 AM, Murli Nagasundaram [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
Until I joined this conversation I had not noticed the difference between
the power on/off and standby symbols. Yes, now I can see the difference,
but I had no idea before that the
Some great user research on power icons was done by
the group who developed the IEEE 1621, the Power
Control User Interface standard. (offical name:*Standard
for User Interface Elements in Power Control of Electronic
Devices Employed in Office/Consumer Environments)
*
I printed out
How about the Save icon? It's often still a 3.25 floppy disk, which
probably befuddles the heck out of anyone born after, say 1985. :)
A few years ago, when I was still a teacher, our school had PCs that used
floppy disks. It was really nice to hold up a floppy disk as a visual
reference for
I'd argue that it is a global standard for populations using *computers* to
access the internet, which makes it very safe globally in any web
application.
Alot of this argument revolves around the battle between idealists and
realists.
Realist: There's no better way to do this...
Idealist: You
One of my favorite books on this or any subject is Man and His
Symbols, by Carl Jung, dealing with universal archetypes.
Abi said: The more I try to come up with a visual model for
'save' the more I think about synapses in a brain, firing away.
Or a piggy bank. Or a squirrel. Or (ducking) Jesus
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'.
Not 100% sure about most commonly. But I'd accept commonly.
The standby symbol is often seen on computers and monitors and interpreted
by
Compare with the definitive origins of the Peace Symbol.
http://www.docspopuli.org/articles/PeaceSymbolArticle.html
How many know that it is stylized representation of the composite semaphore
signs for the letters 'N' and 'D', as in 'Nuclear Disarmament'? Or that at
one point, the Christian
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
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
Considering I have actual relatives who would never in a million
years make the connection between on/off and 1/0, (and they are not
stupid, old, uneducated or otherwise outlying cases) I think it's
foolish to believe that this symbol is as universally comprehensible
as you would like to
Gee, that's helpful. Standby — even if a user knew that's what it
meant — is only marginally more useful than closed circuit (again,
if the user even knows that's what if symbol means, and then what the
term itself means).
And thus, what it means isn't of any use here. To the majority of
This is relevant to a reorganization of my division at the University
of Washington. We were formerly the artist known as Computing and
Communications. We're now UW Technology. The fun, however, has been
the new logo incorporating a power icon.
It appears here with all the requisite
Thought Bill DeRouchey's Language of Interaction was relevant here:
http://www.languageofinteraction.com/
As he points out designers/IxDers are the curators of the language of
interaction, and our usage of symbols is part of the process of teaching
them to people. A triangle for Play is only the
Until I moved to the US from India in 1986, I don't recall having
encountered the 0/1 power symbol more than a couple of times. Even today,
the symbol is quite rare except on computers and some other digital
products. Many educated people in India could probably guess at the meaning
of the
I'm guessing you eat donuts and muffins for breakfast and take your coffee
black -- isn't that what everybody does? ;-)
Growing up in India, we used to use this thing that apparently came on wires
-- though I have never actually see it with my eyes, I kinda believe the
wise people who assured us
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
That is interesting, because even knowing what it is, my mind has to
close the circuit on what does that mean?
-which I guess brings up the question if widespread use translates to
true usability, or just dancing-bear familiarity.
Scott
On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 5:58 PM, Shaun Bergmann [EMAIL
Bill DeRouchey asked this question just a few weeks ago and got some pretty
authoritative answers. It traces back, most recently, to a harmonized
standard that has been given different numbers by ISO and the IEEE.
You can see the comments from industrial designers at
Thanks Bruce! that's exactly what I was looking for.
The source art for all the icons was extremely specific, and to be used in
its exact form and for its prescribed purpose. Circle used discretely was
for off; bar used discretely was for on; bar inside the circle was reserved
for controls that
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 a to
me.
The symbol is a standard. Power as such does not have any visual
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
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