Icons for toolbars and UI elements SHOULD be standardized.
Users should be able to use any toolbar after learning one.
This is well known by now. I wonder why we still debate it?
On Wed, 02 Aug 2006 23:05:35 +0200, wrote:
Having standardized toolbar icons for common functions is an excellent idea. The only possible downside is that it would force a particular look for toolbar buttons -- I don't know if that is a good thing or not. Thoughts, anyone else?Why should that be a bad thing? I like a consistent look, and I prefer it over any mess out there.
I've recently been reviewing some specialised medical software which lots of home-made icons that are all absolutely dreadful! I'm also reading a book, "An Undividable Glow", which contains a lot of dialect from my home town and, while it's a great book, it reminds me of how important common cultural currency is - if you're not from Manchester you'd be lost in it. I Icons and pictograms have too much semiotic importance to be left just to "mere programmers"! ;-)
Charlie