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From: msp33327@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael S. Pereckas)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Thing ICON
Keywords: wanted - graphical representation for generic objects
Message-ID: <1991Jun18.181536.14156@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 18 Jun 91 18:15:36 GMT
References: <1991Jun17.111116.810@syd.dit.CSIRO.AU>
Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 19

In <1991Jun17.111116.810@syd.dit.CSIRO.AU> George.Bray@syd.dit.CSIRO.AU (George Bray) writes:

>I need to refer to various types of objects in my interface.  Some of these
>are people, places, times and ideas.

>One of the representations I need is for a THING, a generic object. At best,
>all I can think of is a hand coming out of a small wooden box, from the
>Addams Family TV series.  This is hardly intuitive!

Has it occured to you to try using the word ``thing''?  That only
makes sense if you speak English, but icons have a way of being
equally incomprehensible to everyone.  Are there no words at all in
this interface?  Only then would I get really worried about using an
actual word.  
--

< Michael Pereckas  <>  m-pereckas@uiuc.edu  <>  Just another student... >
   "This desoldering braid doesn't work.  What's this cheap stuff made
    of, anyway?"  "I don't know, looks like solder to me."