Dear Activity Streams Community,
Hi Chris,
Hello Peter,
Peter has asked me to come up with an icon proposal for Activity
Streams. Tough job, because I think we have to offer something that
lives up to the widely adopted RSS icon. Here we go, have a look at my
first draft sheet at
Hi Matthias,
I actually quite like this initial approach! Using the "stream" metaphor is
clever, and the three bands relate to the RSS chicklet as well.
This is certainly a good start, and in light of something better, would
probably be good to use for now. I think the green needs some tweaking —
it's a bit bright and perhaps not consistent enough with the RSS icon — that
is, it might be worth considering how the orange looks next to an activity
streams green (or perhaps blue?)... but again, thanks for taking a stab at
this...! Something that is certainly needed sooner than later!
> Peter has asked me to come up with an icon proposal for Activity
> Streams. Tough job, because I think we have to offer something that
> lives up to the widely adopted RSS icon. Here we go, have a look at my
> first draft sheet at
I'll just ditto Chris here - I love the streams idea!! It does need a little tweaking color-wise and a few pixels here and there, but it's the best idea I've seen to date. Good job!
The stream icon is right on target and I hope we adopt it, but three
vertically flowing streams would be better than horizontal.
1. Activity stream items are usually read vertically down a page.
2. Horizontally, the icon looks more like still water. Vertically
looks more like a flowing stream.
3. The Chinese/Japanese characters for stream, river, water are all
three vertical strokes, and this logo vertically would be a close
match to the ancient non-squared versions of these.
> I'll just ditto Chris here - I love the streams idea!! It does need a
> little tweaking color-wise and a few pixels here and there, but it's
> the best idea I've seen to date. Good job!
> The stream icon is right on target and I hope we adopt it, but three
> vertically flowing streams would be better than horizontal.
> 1. Activity stream items are usually read vertically down a page.
> 2. Horizontally, the icon looks more like still water. Vertically
> looks more like a flowing stream.
> 3. The Chinese/Japanese characters for stream, river, water are all
> three vertical strokes, and this logo vertically would be a close
> match to the ancient non-squared versions of these.
> On Oct 6, 2009, at 1:57 PM, Steve Ivy wrote:
> > I'll just ditto Chris here - I love the streams idea!! It does need a
> > little tweaking color-wise and a few pixels here and there, but it's
> > the best idea I've seen to date. Good job!
Hi Joseph et al. just some comments inline before I create some more variations.
On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 12:43 AM, Joseph Boyle <boyle.jos...@gmail.com>wrote:
> The stream icon is right on target and I hope we adopt it, but three > vertically flowing streams would be better than horizontal.
> 1. Activity stream items are usually read vertically down a page.
Well, I suppose they run line by line from bottom to top. Much like tweets or blogs, the newest item on top. But I am not yet familiar with activity stream clients.
2. Horizontally, the icon looks more like still water. Vertically
> looks more like a flowing stream.
To me vertically is more like a water fall or rain. But you are right, vertical wave lines are more calm than "falling" lines. I prefer the calmness to prevent the impression of information over-flooding.
3. The Chinese/Japanese characters for stream, river, water are all
> three vertical strokes, and this logo vertically would be a close > match to the ancient non-squared versions of these.
Interesting. I did not know that. However, the lines of Chinese and Japanese run top/down and fill the page from right to left. That means that the river lines have the same orientation as the line of signs itself. For left-to-right (eg English) and right-to-left languages (eg Hebrew) vertical lines would be 90 degrees stoppers.
I'll give it a try anyway. Thanks for your kudos and comments. Matthias
I find the vertical waves (#2) less expressive than the vertical waves (#1). It could also be "steaming water - lunch is ready" -- or "a Jeep was here". :)
> I find the vertical waves (#2) less expressive than the vertical
> waves (#1). It could also be "steaming water - lunch is ready" -- or
> "a Jeep was here". :)
Thanks for trying out the vertical orientation - until I saw it I
thought I would prefer it, but I definitely prefer the horizontal.
Vertical starts to look like "S"s. I also really like the green with
the slight gradient in the background.
My only critique at this point would be that in the small icon, the
ends of the "waves" feel like their crowding the edge of the icon.
Perhaps bringing them in by a pixel (or even a half-pixel via
anti-aliasing) would help?
Thanks again for your work! I've already used the 16x16 icon in a
small project I'm working on, and its looking great!
--Steve
On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 6:17 AM, Matthias Müller-Prove
> I find the vertical waves (#2) less expressive than the vertical waves (#1).
> It could also be "steaming water - lunch is ready" -- or "a Jeep was here".
> :)
One more note: on the gradient green, you might try using the darker
green at the top, and a slightly darker green at the bottom - it
might make the streams pop a little more.
On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 6:17 AM, Matthias Müller-Prove
> I find the vertical waves (#2) less expressive than the vertical waves (#1).
> It could also be "steaming water - lunch is ready" -- or "a Jeep was here".
> :)
While the water imagery refers to the word "stream" it really doesn't connect to the idea of what activity streams are and do. Water is fine, but it's a very broad and overused symbol, semantically abstract. the "activity streams" name may change too (there was at least a year or two when everything was orange RSS and XML protocols and "syndication" until sensible marketers reduced them to "feeds").
imho, the activitystream icon (not to be confused with the project's team logo) should visually suggest...
ASs broadcast lives. "I did this!" "We did this!" in little moments. (each thing we do) ASs connect people through those updates, Relationships are a string of various updates over time. ASs sync systems. So my view of you is accurate, fresh and complete wherever I see you. . Immediately/urgently/now. The opposite of the static web page; Now is the new Five Minutes Ago. AS's tell life stories. Biography: we are what we do.
So that's the stream itself. What about from the view of someone looking at the feed icon? clicking on an AS icon you may...
Peek. See the latest information behind the feed. Get. Subscribe to the feed. Ask. Get permission to subscribe.
> I find the vertical waves (#2) less expressive than the vertical
> waves (#1). It could also be "steaming water - lunch is ready" -- or
> "a Jeep was here". :)
> I find the vertical waves (#2) less expressive than the vertical waves
(#1).
> It could also be "steaming water - lunch is ready" -- or "a Jeep was
here".
> :)
you know, what about three shallow arrows, like Kevin's symbol but
reversed so they point right? It doesn't have the water theme, but
it's got the idea of repeated actions...
On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Kevin Marks <kevinma...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ⼮ is the kangxi radical for river - 0x2f2e
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 1:44 PM, Peter H. Reiser <peter.rei...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> +1 for horizontal version
>> On Oct 7, 2009, at 3:17 PM, Matthias Müller-Prove wrote:
>> I find the vertical waves (#2) less expressive than the vertical waves
>> (#1).
>> It could also be "steaming water - lunch is ready" -- or "a Jeep was
>> here".
>> :)
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 1:44 PM, Peter H. Reiser <peter.rei...@gmail.com > > wrote: > > +1 for horizontal version > > On Oct 7, 2009, at 3:17 PM, Matthias Müller-Prove wrote:
> > I find the vertical waves (#2) less expressive than the vertical > waves (#1). > > It could also be "steaming water - lunch is ready" -- or "a Jeep > was here". > > :)
It would be nice to communicate all this, but this is a lot to squeeze
into a little favicon.
The ubiquitous RSS logo itself doesn't explain everything that RSS is
and can do - it only directly communicates the idea of broadcasting.
The icon doesn't and can't explain the whole concept - it functions as
a tag and reminder for viewers who have to learn more about the
concept from other sources.
The proposed Activity Streams icon communicates indirectly by its
resemblance to the already widespread RSS chicklet, that this is
something similar to the RSS the viewer already knows about.
> While the water imagery refers to the word "stream" it really
> doesn't connect to the idea of what activity streams are and do.
> Water is fine, but it's a very broad and overused symbol,
> semantically abstract. the "activity streams" name may change too
> (there was at least a year or two when everything was orange RSS and
> XML protocols and "syndication" until sensible marketers reduced
> them to "feeds").
> imho, the activitystream icon (not to be confused with the project's
> team logo) should visually suggest...
> ASs broadcast lives. "I did this!" "We did this!"
> in little moments. (each thing we do)
> ASs connect people through those updates, Relationships are a string
> of various updates over time.
> ASs sync systems. So my view of you is accurate, fresh and complete
> wherever I see you. .
> Immediately/urgently/now. The opposite of the static web page; Now
> is the new Five Minutes Ago.
> AS's tell life stories. Biography: we are what we do.
> So that's the stream itself. What about from the view of someone
> looking at the feed icon? clicking on an AS icon you may...
> Peek. See the latest information behind the feed.
> Get. Subscribe to the feed.
> Ask. Get permission to subscribe.
"What's cooking" or "What's hot" is not an inappropriate association for an activity stream either. :)
I agree the vertical draft looks a bit like S'es - I would suggest having them wave in the other direction (in fact simply rotating the horizontal draft icon gives the other direction) and maybe reducing the curvature slightly.
It is true that Western text reads horizontally, but the progress from item to item is still vertical in most UIs, and it's the stream of items that we're highlighting.
On Oct 7, 2009, at 6:27 AM, Jonathan Coffman wrote:
>> I find the vertical waves (#2) less expressive than the vertical >> waves (#1). It could also be "steaming water - lunch is ready" -- >> or "a Jeep was here". :)
Hi, to me the three lines do not symbolize three activities that are displayed by a client. In that case I would have proposed a scroll or sheet of paper with lines. From my point of view they stand for three different kinds of activities (read: verbs, read: many). The subscriber is free to read one kind of activities from the stream while letting the others pass by. I have lots of scribblings with pen on paper. Most of them are too complicated to fit into 16x16 and keep a resemblance to the RSS icon. I am still convinced, that these simple lines have the potential to catch on. If you prefer dandelions, show me how to fit them into 16x16. No, I start again: If you prefer dandelions, then use them on your slides as a visual eye-catcher in your presentation on Activity Streams. The waves can still be the wind that carry them into the world.
BTW_ I just assigned the CC0 license to my activity stream icons. They are now free to use and modify without attribution. I hope this is the best way that others feel free to create glossy animated 3D versions.
<mmpr...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> to me the three lines do not symbolize three activities that are displayed
> by a client. In that case I would have proposed a scroll or sheet of paper
> with lines. From my point of view they stand for three different kinds of
> activities (read: verbs, read: many). The subscriber is free to read one
> kind of activities from the stream while letting the others pass by.
> I have lots of scribblings with pen on paper. Most of them are too
> complicated to fit into 16x16 and keep a resemblance to the RSS icon. I am
> still convinced, that these simple lines have the potential to catch on.
> If you prefer dandelions, show me how to fit them into 16x16. No, I start
> again: If you prefer dandelions, then use them on your slides as a visual
> eye-catcher in your presentation on Activity Streams. The waves can still be
> the wind that carry them into the world.
> BTW_ I just assigned the CC0 license to my activity stream icons. They are
> now free to use and modify without attribution. I hope this is the best way
> that others feel free to create glossy animated 3D versions.
