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Icons That Don't Make Sense Anymore
theodp writes "The Floppy Disk Icon, observes Scott Hanselman, means 'save' for a whole generation of people who have never seen one. That, and other old people icons that don't make sense anymore — Radio Buttons, Clipboards, Bookmarks, Address Books and Calendars, Voicemail, Manila Folder, Handset Phone, Magnifying Glass and Binoculars, Envelopes, Wrenches and Gears, Microphones, Photography, Televisions, Carbon Copies and Blueprints — are the subject of Hanselman's post on icons that are near or past retirement age, whose continued use is likely to make them iconic glyphs whose origins are shrouded in mystery to many."
Microphones...still used everywhere, they've just changed their shape.
Magnifying Glasses..still used to see small things, or did I miss out on the genetic change given people 20-10 eyesight.
Binoculars...see Magnifying glasses [I suppose they are less common just because fewer people seem to be spending time experiencing the great outdoors].
Televisions...um, what Universe is this tool living in?
Wrenches and Gears...I guess once everyone now over 30 dies, civilization ends or everything has switched to using magnets
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
But all the other ones are just plain wrong...
Only the name is wrong with radio buttons...
I, and most other people who have to take paperwork away from a desk, use clipboards daily,
Books are still quite normal around here, especially if you've been to school,
People still use address books and calenders, electronic devices supplement them,
Voicemail icon yes, it is dated,
Every office I've been in has had lots of beige folders,
Almost every desk phone has a handset that looks somewhat like that, even VoIP phones,
Physical magnifying glasses and binocuilars are still for looking for stuff,
Most people around here still get at least bills in envelopes,
If said 20-something has ever known anyone who took shop classes they should know what a wrench is (though what a wrench has to do with settings, I don't know),
Microphones like that are still used in recording studios and on bar stages,
Polaroids look like prints...,
Might not know why it's got feelers, but it still looks like a TV,
Last time I made a carbon copy, I was filling out a waybill... last Thursday (also a mimeograph machine does not do carbon copies, it makes mimeographs)
Uhhh...except for devices with an "i" in the front of them frankly i haven't seen very many "higher resolution" devices, in fact when it comes to laptops if anything they are going lower resolution with most sub 15 inchers being 1366x768.
And my boys were too young to remember floppies but that doesn't mean they don't know what the floppy icon means, they just don't call it a floppy but a "save icon". Just because the symbol BEHIND the icon doesn't mean anything to the younger generations does not mean the icon itself is bad.
I learned just recently how important those icons are when I took on the task of teaching a computer illiterate neighbor how to use a PC. He can now do basic tasks in most programs because the same icons are used in multiple programs so all he had to do was learn those basic icons to know how to do those functions, whether on his XP desktop or Win 7 netbook. again he doesn't know the meaning behind the symbols but frankly that doesn't matter, all that matters is the icons are easily recognizable and similar across platforms and applications.
So I wouldn't be so quick to just toss them aside, especially since i seriously doubt the majority of devices will have retina displays for quite awhile. Besides if we based it on modern devices there would probably be only 3 or 4 icons, an SD card, a laptop, a flash stick, and a smartphone. So many devices have consolidated that there really isn't enough relevant icons to go around IMHO.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
you morons aren't actually assuming that a radio button has anything to do with an actual radio are you? that would be just sad
Great, then "read and weep" works doubly in this case: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/tfmb4/til_why_radio_buttons_are_called_radio_buttons/