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I think it's brilliant. Simple, elegant, clear. The argument that one actually has to read the icons is pretty dim, because the colours are very clearly defined and icon recognition basically begins with colour, then overall shape, then details of the shape, and then maybe text.
The only thing I'm not too fond of, is the use of small caps for software with two capitalised words (like After Effects or InDesign). They'd be better with just two caps.
From a usability perspective, when you look for photoshop, the icon with "Ps" will make more sense than an icon with a feather.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheOriginalFlashDavo
I can't speak for you, but I have no problem at all recognising the Photoshop icon on my taskbar or desktop.Quote:
Originally Posted by yasunobu13
I use Quicksilver to launch apps, so i almost don't even do it by icon anymore.
Photoshop before the "feather" icon will always be the "eye" icon for me.
Yes but with the new icon its even easier (and uglier) to spot, if you had never seen a Ps Icon before and someone showed you both and said which one would you think its photoshop then I you'd probably pick the new one.Quote:
I can't speak for you, but I have no problem at all recognising the Photoshop icon on my taskbar or desktop.
However, I do agree. They look crap, however im not not buy it just because its icons are hideous, its the program which I use and care about not the lil' picture I use to open it up.
:D Same here, what was it before version 4?Quote:
Originally Posted by gerbick
artist palette in 2.5, eye in 3.04 on a filmstrip, eye in a picture frame in 4.01... eye surrounded by a camera lens ring or something like that in 5.5 or so.Quote:
Originally Posted by robbmcaulay
Or something like that. Doing this off total memory so I could be sooooo wrong.
The fact that you have no problem with a feather representing an image editing program means that there will be no usability problems with an icon that actually represents the program's name.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheOriginalFlashDavo
I agree with the ugly and generic part
http://aralbalkan.com/821
Adobe defends the new CS3 branding
Published December 22nd, 2006 in Adobe
Ryan Hicks, the Sr. Experience Designer at Adobe (and brainchild of the new branding?), defends the new designs with the following words on Veerle’s blog:
“Honestly, we have been living with the icon system internally on our own machines for so long now that it’s a bit hard to remember what the big deal is. We’re as varied and hardcore a user group as will be found anywhere, we’ve found the stuff just works. Done.”
This is how I read it:
“We designed them. We like them. We use them and they work for us. Done.”
You won’t believe how many times I’ve encountered this mentality at software development houses. As the technorati, we can sometimes come to believe our own hype and become entrenched in our ivory towers where the WiFi flows free.
I was once doing usability consulting at a medium-sized software development house and had a programmer show me a ridiculously complicated interface. It had hundreds of tiny buttons, and tiny text that even I couldn’t read with my contact-lens augmented 20/20 vision. This programmer, who was the lead programmer at his organization, however, knew the interface inside out. He had designed it and had worked with it since its inception. He swept through the demonstration so quickly I could hardly keep up. That’s how he worked. His brain was on fast-forward and his fingers battled to keep up. He probably thought in binary too. That was fine, of course, but here’s the catch:
He thought that everyone else thought in binary too.
Here was a man who was a completely different creature to his user base and yet he thought that he *was* his user base. And, since he was the lead programmer, no one dared argue with him on the design of the interface. Everyone else did their best to ignore the huge grinning elephant in the room as he went through his demonstration. When I finally interrupted him and told him that I couldn’t understand a single workflow he had shown me and that the interface was terribly over-complicated, he appeared to deliberate my words for a few moments and then began repeating the tour i–n a s–l–o–w–e–r v–o–i–c–e because he apparently realized that I mustn’t be too bright.
I wonder how many people working at Adobe feel they can honestly express their opinions to the Sr. Experience Designer. There is a reason we do user testing in our field. Organizations have a power hierarchy and culture that can quickly become very insular and result in an environment where everyone continuously pats each other on the back, all the while edging further and further away from the plot. (I believe Americans call this “drinking the Kool-Aid“). This is exactly the type of mentality that software developers have to drop if they want to understand what their users want.
The biggest fear any organization should have is being out of touch with its customer base’s needs. Regardless of whether those needs are rational or not. After all, Photoshop is Photoshop regardless of the branding right? And people buy $1,000 watches because they’re just $900-worth more accurate than a $100 watch.
Companies that make tangible products like perfumes and cars and flat-screen TV sets have understood for a long time that they are not just selling the actual product itself but values, expectations, a lifestyle, a self-image, a story, an idea, a feeling. Your users are telling you that the new branding doesn’t agree with their expectations. They make beautiful things (both form and function) and they want the tools they work with everyday to inspire them. Purely subjective? Perhaps (although many people have pointed out worries regarding localization of the icons and the impact of relying so heavily on color for color-blind users). Irrational? Maybe. But it doesn’t mean that these concerns are any less important to your user base.
Being transparent with your users and running things by them is great but the value of asking for feedback is greatly reduced if you then ignore what people tell you and fall on the defensive.
The overwhelming response to the new icons and the new application branding is negative. Instead of labeling your customers as people who “rise up and scream heresy” as Ryan does in the interview, perhaps you should listen to them. They’re only screaming because they care. It’s silence that you should be afraid of.
Did I make any comment regarding usability about the new icons?Quote:
Originally Posted by yasunobu13
;)