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From: don@brillig.umd.edu (Don Hopkins)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.edu,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: What to know & universal icons
Message-ID: <19238@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 24 Aug 89 05:58:43 GMT
References: <56543@aerospace.AERO.ORG>
Sender: nobody@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: don@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Don Hopkins)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction Lab
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In article <56543@aerospace.AERO.ORG> abbott@itro3.aero.org (Russell J. Abbott) writes:
>In the world of instantly accessible information that we are
>constructing I'm beginning to wonder what one should actually bother to
>learn.  That is, why know something when one can look it up using an
>information locator service?  I also wonder what the difference is
>between knowing something and knowing where to find out about something.

>-- 
>-- Russ abbott@itro3.aero.org

You can't have an intuitive understanding of something if you only know 
where to look it up. And it's very hard to write down things you 
understand intuitivly so that other people can look them up. 

Here are my entries in the universal icon contest. I have my doubts
that they are really universal, but I have not had the chance to test
them out on any genuine space aliens yet to be sure.

Arrows as icons for directions:

Icon 0, left:

	  *
	 **
	********
	 **
	  *

Icon 1, right:

	     *
	     **
	********
	     **
	     *

Icon 2, up or forward:

	  *
	 ***
	*****
	  *
	  *
	  *

Icon 3, down or back:

	  *
	  *
	  *
	*****
	 ***
	  *

Icon 0 and Icon 1 seem less ambiguous to me than Icon 2 and Icon 3, which 
could each mean two different directions.

So what *is* is about arrows that make them seem to indicate
direction? (Or am I missing the point?) What other ideas could arrows
be confused with?  It probably has more to do with society than with
the shape of arrow...  Maybe the fact that we live in a 3-dimensional
society has something to do with the ambiguity of icons 2 and 3?

For some reason, arrows just don't seem elemental enough to be
universal icons for direction.  How about a very thin long rectangle
as an icon for a 1-dimensional line segment, and a small circle as an
icon for a dimensionless point?

	-Don

"What's your sign?" "Neon!"