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From: George.Bray@syd.dit.CSIRO.AU (George Bray)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Thing ICON
Keywords: wanted - graphical representation for generic objects
Message-ID: <1991Jun23.062835.13369@syd.dit.CSIRO.AU>
Date: 23 Jun 91 06:28:35 GMT
References: <1991Jun18.181536.14156@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
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Reply-To: George.Bray@syd.dit.CSIRO.AU (George Bray)
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In article <1991Jun18.181536.14156@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, msp33327@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael S. Pereckas) writes:

> 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.  

It's true that many icons can become confusing, and I've considered using
the textual description of the item inside an icon.  For THING this may be
the best approach, however there's no way I'll fit ASSERTION or GLOSSARY
in such a small space (typically 1.75 cm in the smallest representation).

George Bray

> Michael Pereckas

George Bray
CSIRO Division of Information Technology    >         Phone: +61 2 887 9307
PO Box 1599  North Ryde  2113  AUSTRALIA    >           Fax: +61 2 888 7787
Internet:   George.Bray@syd.dit.CSIRO.AU    >    CompuServe:      72711,253