On Wed, Jul 06, 2016 at 06:14:26AM -0400, Wayne Stambaugh wrote: > That's a fair question that I'm not sure I can answer. Can we > reasonably assume that the user expects the default action to be edit as > opposed to view or any other action? I just don't know. I do know that > icons should be reasonable (which is always subject to interpretation) > metaphors for the action they represent. In this case the metaphors are > edit a symbol library and edit a footprint library.
Disclaimer: I haven't looked through the icons yet. I'm at work doing a bit of https://xkcd.com/303/ . But... I'm strongly opposed to having a bunch of 'pencils' and stuff in the icons. KiCad has a *lot* of icons, and the priorities of the icon designer should be to make them 1) unique, and 2) quickly distinguishable from each other. The icon doesn't have to say *everything*, nobody is going to break out a magnifying lens to look at every little thing in the drawing and figure out what it does when it's a little picture displaying a centimeter across on their monitor. Icons are there for after you have a rough idea of what the tool does, to quickly find a target to click on. Adding features like pencils to icons increases the similarity of different ones, increasing the amount of time it takes a user to discern them. It's bad design. > > On 7/6/2016 6:10 AM, Simon Wells wrote: > > As the normal is edit is there really a need of a pencil icon as > > opposed to just having the magnifying glass on gerbview as its only a > > viewer? > > > > > > > > On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 9:22 PM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambau...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > >> On 7/6/2016 3:20 AM, Fabrizio Tappero wrote: > >>> Dear All, > >>> few years have passed since the last main Kicad icon restyling. In my > >>> opinion, the current icons are serving us quite well except for very few > >>> which could use a little face lift. > >>> > >>> The few icons that make me particularly itchy are the main Kicad icons > >>> for which this very imposing pencil does not play very well. I know that > >>> some of your really want a pencil to suggest that those tools are for > >>> editing. The truth is that now a days icons can be a little more subtle. > >>> > >>> I'd like to propose these new set of icons for the main KiCad toolbar. > >>> Please let me know what you think and please if there is anybody who > >>> wants to help out please, now is the moment. > >>> > >>> Cheers > >>> Fabrizio > >>> > >> > >> Fabrizio, > >> > >> The symbol library editor bitmap is too generic. We have two library > >> editors, a symbol library editor and a footprint library editor. Your > >> proposed symbol library editor icon is ambiguous (it just an icon for a > >> library metaphor). If it had a symbol such as and op-amp superimposed > >> over the top of the books, that may be more clear. I may also need some > >> edit metaphor (such as the pencil in the current icon) as well because > >> it could be confused as library viewer rather than and editor. Although > >> our current icon is also ambiguous. It looks like you are going to open > >> a text editor. > >> > >> Your footprint library editor icon could be confusing as well. Most PCB > >> layout users are familiar with the concept of component footprints. > >> It's what they do. The human footprint may be more familiar to > >> non-technical users but I don't think that is relevant for KiCad users. > >> There is also no edit metaphor. Perhaps you should use your symbol > >> library editor icon with a component footprint and some edit metaphor > >> (pencil?) superimposed over top of it for the footprint library editor > >> icon. > >> > >> Cheers, > >> > >> Wayne > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > >> Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net > >> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > >> More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
