Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 28th Oct 2007 16:55 UTC
This is the second article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms [part I]. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. In part II today, we focus on the pictogramme, popularly known as the icon.
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Member since:
2006-07-30
The whole consistency thing is a double edged sword:
Make your icons too inconsistent and the whole thing looks like a mess, make them too consistent (similar in perspective, color, brightness, shape) and they become basically indistinguishable, especially if they are rather small.
Friends think my icons look like one big mess but if they were more similar I would struggle to actually see the differences between them. So I guess it's different strokes for different folks again.
At least I would choose messy and inconsistent icons over icons that all look the same any day.
But that may result from my eyes which are not all that good ;-)
Nice article, anyway. I didn't know how much thought people put into icons. Although I must say I liked the first part of this series better. But that may be just me and let's not start to interpolate using just two values ;-)