Support and General Use > Theming and Appearance Customization
ONGOING DEFAULT THEME CONTEST!!!
Vague Rant:
Indeed, hence my suggestion that the idea be "combined" with more identifiable imagery rather than "replaced" or some other verb which would suggest I was disagreeing with you.
The subject at hand is whether some dots sitting side by side clearly represent the concept of mono and stereo sound; as far as I know there's no established standard to that effect, so it needs to be strongly indicative of its meaning innately. For that reason I lean toward either imagery like speakers, with sound waves travelling either one direction or two, or well-known symbols for sound channels such as the box. If there's a well-known symbolic icon for mono/stereo then I'd support the use of that.
soap:
--- Quote from: Vague Rant on May 30, 2010, 07:18:45 PM --- or well-known symbols for sound channels such as the box.
--- End quote ---
I was unaware of said symbol. ;)
Ezraghast:
--- Quote from: Llorean on May 28, 2010, 04:27:13 PM ---Icons shouldn't really be used unless it's completely self-explanatory and if I saw it alternating between one ring and two rings as I scanned through the frequencies I probably wouldn't have any clue what it meant.
--- End quote ---
I don't really get that. Icons represent a thing, they don't necessarily describe it. Is the standard 'play' icon obvious to someone who has never seen it before?
soap:
--- Quote from: Ezraghast on May 30, 2010, 07:41:14 PM ---
--- Quote from: Llorean on May 28, 2010, 04:27:13 PM ---Icons shouldn't really be used unless it's completely self-explanatory and if I saw it alternating between one ring and two rings as I scanned through the frequencies I probably wouldn't have any clue what it meant.
--- End quote ---
I don't really get that. Icons represent a thing, they don't necessarily describe it. Is the standard 'play' icon obvious to someone who has never seen it before?
--- End quote ---
Today? Likely not except for its cultural momentum.
In the context of a tape deck? Likely many / most caught on quickly.
But that's really the point. The play triangle did catch on, I believe in part, due to its (I can't think of the right word) its connection to our spatial cognition.
ZincAlloy:
--- Quote from: Vague Rant on May 30, 2010, 06:44:34 PM ---How well understood is that imagery? I agree with Llorean that the dim/hollow image helps to make it somewhat clearer; perhaps that could be combined with the mono/stereo symbols I described above; have the channel box visible at all times, and light up each dot as necessary. This even allows for having no channels lit when there's no signal.
EDIT: e.g.:
Either the top or bottom rows depending on which conveys the information more clearly; from left to right (though I feel their strength is in this hopefully already being obvious) no channels (when radio is untuned), one channel (mono), two channels (stereo).
--- End quote ---
I considered using these, but thought they wouldn't look good when styled like the other icons. And they show a speaker arrangement. That's cofusing. I also think that the circles are far more common. I've seen them in TV guides, on records, car radios and digital audio workstations.
Maybe we should add a greyed out ring to the mono icon to make things clearer.
As for the reception icons: An antenna icon would need to be quite large to look good in cabbie. The two other common icons that indicate reception are a number of ascending bars and the one that looks similar to the rss icon. I think the bars would look too similar to the volume icon. Furthermore I associate the other one with airwaves. It's meaning should be pretty clear on a radio screen. And it's simple. I still think it's the best icon for that job.
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