Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!kodak!elmgate!jeh From: jeh@elmgate.UUCP (Ed Hanway) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Icon Highlighting (was Re: Workbench Discard bug) Summary: A plea for making selected icons distinct. Message-ID: <1147@elmgate.UUCP> Date: 13 Oct 89 20:38:00 GMT References: <4657@ncar.ucar.edu> <1989Oct10.131752.19374@uncecs.edu> <2340@cpsc6a.att.com> <1989Oct13.131838.11717@uncecs.edu> Sender: jeh@elmgate.UUCP Reply-To: jeh@elmgate.UUCP (Ed Hanway) Distribution: na Organization: Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY Lines: 27 In article <1989Oct13.131838.11717@uncecs.edu> utoddl@uncecs.edu (Todd M. Lewis) writes: >Because so >many Icons these days have alternate images and multiple colors, it >has become difficult to distinguish at first glance whether some >Icons are selected or not. I have to toggle them back and forth >a few times to be sure (and to see the 2-frame long movie:-). I've noticed a lot of icons that have clever alternate images, but it's too hard to tell which is the normal image and which is the alternate. It's not too difficult to understand "closed drawer"/"open drawer" icons, but with ones like "disk"/"disk with lightning bolt through it" or "picture of amiga"/ "picture of amiga with text on screen" aren't immediately obvious. I propose a few loose guidelines for designing icons: 1. Keep the size reasonable. A 10K icon for a 30K program is not reasonable. 2. For alternate image icons, make the state apparent. Suggestion: use color 3 (orange) sparingly in the normal image and profusely in the alternate. 3. There is no rule #3. Ed Hanway Eastman Kodak Company ...!rochester!kodak!elmgate!jeh #include