Icon rot

A number of folks have observed that commonly used icons in applications are no longer sensible.

Their observations are true: pictures of floppy discs are lost on the latest generation of computer users. ("What's a floppy disc?")

The implicit assertion is that we need a new set of icons to represent common functions such as "save" and "search". I disagree with this.

Let me state that I do agree with the assertion that the icons no longer make sense. The notions of floppy discs, radio buttons, paper calendars, and cassette tapes are not relevant to an entire generation of computer owners.

I disagree with the notion that we need a replacement set of icons.

I think that we can get by without icons -- for certain functions. Most prominent are the "save" and "save as" functions.

Classic desktop applications needed the idea of "saving data". They were designed to load data into non-permanent memory, allow the user to modify it, and they allow the user to either save the changed version or abandon the changes and revert to the original version.

Web applications and phone apps are designed differently. We have moved away from the "modify and save" design. Web applications and phone apps save data by default. They don't offer the user of "save or do not save". Saving is automatic. (The better phone apps allow the user to revert to earlier versions.)

I see few icons in web applications, and very few in phone apps. The few icons I see are usually singletons, such as the "send tweet" icon in Twitter apps. Instead of icons, I see buttons (or tap areas) with words. The Facebook app has tap areas with the words "status", "photo", and "post". The Google Gmail app has a tap area with an envelope with a wavy arrow, but to be honest I would be more comfortable with the word "send".

Windows set a number of standards for application design and provided the commonly used icons for those operations. Web and phone apps do not follow those standards, and do not need those common icons.

Rather than a set of standard icons (and therefore a set of standard operations) for all apps, look for app-specific operations. Web apps and phone apps will provide the operations that they need, the operations that make sense. They will not attempt to mold an app into a standard model; they will let the app be itself.

With no common set of functions, there is no need for a common set of icons. Indeed, icons will cause more confusion than they save, since custom icons are not universally understood. Look for more words, and fewer icons.