Icons
James Ashley
The recommended icon set for Windows Phone has been release. The set
can be viewed here: http://groups.google.com/group/semiotics-and-technology/web/windows-phone-icons
Can semiotics interpret these symbols? Explain why they were chosen?
Evaluate whether they are intuitive to users? Help us understand what
being "intuitive" means?
Paul L. Snyder
Consider the types of symbols in this collection. We have:
* Symbols that depict a particular object, with the intent of evoking
an association with that object's primary function (an SLR
camera, an envelope, an film-driven movie camera, a file folder,
a present, a trash can, a pencil)
* Symbols that suggest a general idea, in the hopes that it can be
related to a contextual activity (a minus sign, a plus sign,
arrows, a check mark, an 'X', a star, a question mark)
* Symbols that rely primarily on already-established conventions
outside of the computer realm (play/pause/ff/rew)
* Composite symbols that try to suggest a more complicated idea (a
star with a superimposed '+', arrows pointing to a bar, two curved
arrows suggesting a loop
It's interesting to consider these symbols in light of the theory of
'icons' that Eco critiques in chapter 3 (see p.191, I know we aren't
there yet). Clearly, these icons are striving to be icons in a similar
sense, as they are intended to
* have the same properties as their objects,
* be similar to their objects,
* be analogous to their objects, or
* be motivated by their objects
(though I'm less sure about that last one). Each of the symbols (with
the possible exception of the large circle, for which I can't guess a
probable meaning) is hoping to rely on pre-existing culturally-coded
conventions, with lesser or greater degrees of similitude. By providing
a hook that is "similar" to the action that the icon is intended to
indicate, the hope is to make it easier for the user to store a mental
model of these associations. In some cases (such as the gear) this may
be quite loose. It's interesting that several of the icons (movie
camera, floppy disk) used depictions of outmoded technology in an
attempt to make their meaning clearer.
Perhaps one thing that semiotics can do here is to point us to the
culturally coded nature of the associations being used, which can be a
starting point for assessing the probably efficacity of the symbol
selections (though even so, nothing is a substitute for actual end-user
testing).
Paul