[Qgis-user] [Qgis-developer] New Icons - difficult to "read"

John Callahan john.callahan at udel.edu
Fri May 24 10:25:33 PDT 2013


I have to agree that a design scheme change may be more appropriate than a
color change.  I also agree with others that the new 2.0 icons look more
professional, they are less user-friendly (similar feeling when GMail
recently changed their UI.)  Even the older QGIS icons looked nearly
identical to each other.  I've similar experiences with both sets of icons,
to people using QGIS forf the first time, and myself who uses it often.

Maybe the plus sign doesn't need to be on each?  Perhaps the Add Data ->
menu bar itself could be styled differently?

Is it necessary, technically or otherwise, to have all of the icons?  Is it
possible to simplify it to three or so icons, Add File (vector, raster),
Add Service (W*S), Add DB Connection (PG, SQLite, oracle, MSSQL)?   The
opening dialogue box would have the subtle differences.  Just a thought...

- John


John Callahan
Research Scientist
Delaware Geological Survey
University of Delaware
http://www.dgs.udel.edu
john.callahan at udel.edu



On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:28 AM, Jonathan Moules <
jonathanmoules at warwickshire.gov.uk> wrote:

> Hi Marco,
> I'm afraid I respectfully disagree. A "short adaptation period" won't make
> the icons more obvious.
>
> I'm not a big QGIS user. If I want to use /any/ function in QGIS, I have
> to stare at the icons and use the tooltips to figure out what button does
> what, so I'm not "adapted" to the 1.8 set, let alone the 2.x ones.
>
> That said, when I look at the 2.0 set what I see is many icons that are
> almost identical. Any icon that is only ~3% different from its neighbour
> (i.e. the database ones) is never going to be any good for its purpose. I'd
> imagine people with a visual impairment may struggle even more.
>
> Also remember, not all users navigate by knowing where the buttons are (in
> fact, most don't). For those users you *have* to have a good set of icons
> that are easily differentiated at a glance.
>
> I think colour would be a start, but the designs themselves are still too
> similar.
>
> I think resolving this in time for the 2.x release makes sense. Otherwise
> those who do learn these icons will have to re-learn them for 2.1. It
> doesn't make sense to change something as fundamental as the iconography
> twice in as many releases.
>
> Just my 2p.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Jonathan
>
>
> On 24 May 2013 13:23, Marco Bernasocchi <marco at bernawebdesign.ch> wrote:
>
>> Agree as well with Werner and Anita.
>> It is just matter of a short adaptation period.
>>
>> Ciao
>>
>>
>> On 05/24/2013 01:34 PM, Anita Graser wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> -1. I agree with Werner. Having used the "gis" icon set for many months,
>>> I have problems using the old ones. That's just how the human mind works.
>>> Let's improve the "gis" icons where it makes sense but let us focus or
>>> work on one set.
>>>
>>> Best wishes,
>>> Anita
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 1:14 PM, Werner Macho <werner.macho at gmail.com
>>> <mailto:werner.macho at gmail.com**>> wrote:
>>>
>>>     Hi!
>>>
>>>     -1 for keeping the old Icons..
>>>
>>>     I'd rather vote to probably leave them for 2.0 but get rid of them
>>>     afterwards.. It does not make any sense to have different sets of
>>>     icons ..
>>>     And as GRASS is using the same icon set in their GUI it does indeed
>>>     make sense to use it probably in every open source GIS ..
>>>
>>>     I know that the first time might be hard but that"s just the usual
>>>     human behaviour of refusing new things.
>>>     But for e.g. I am working with the new icon set since a very long
>>>     time (to use GRASS and QGIS in parallel) and I can find everything
>>>     at once but rather have some kind of problems when I switch to the
>>>     old ones..
>>>
>>>     So I know that I could adapt myself to the old iconset within a few
>>>     days .. It"s just human that every "more work" you have to do gets
>>>     refused at first regardless of the advatnages it might bring later
>>>
>>>     So maybe for a period of migration I"d leave the old icons inside
>>>     but definitely not for 2.1 or later ..
>>>
>>>     OF course that all is just my personal experience and opinion
>>>
>>>     kind regards
>>>     Werner
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 12:15 PM, Duarte Carreira <DCarreira at edia.pt
>>>     <mailto:DCarreira at edia.pt>> wrote:
>>>
>>>         I would like to ask the “powers that be” to keep the old and
>>>         trusted icons. They never failed me and the gui is quite
>>>         uplifting. The new set may be technically better but is not as
>>>         friendly to users.
>>>
>>>         Please keep both.
>>>
>>>         Duarte
>>>
>>>         *De:*Jonathan Moules [mailto:jonathanmoules@**
>>> warwickshire.gov.uk <jonathanmoules at warwickshire.gov.uk>
>>>         <mailto:jonathanmoules@**warwickshire.gov.uk<jonathanmoules at warwickshire.gov.uk>
>>> >]
>>>         *Enviada:* sexta-feira, 24 de Maio de 2013 09:59
>>>         *Para:* skampus
>>>         *Cc:* qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
>>>         <mailto:qgis-user at lists.osgeo.**org <qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org>
>>> >;
>>>         qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org
>>>         <mailto:qgis-developer at lists.**osgeo.org<qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org>
>>> >
>>>         *Assunto:* Re: [Qgis-user] [Qgis-developer] New Icons -
>>>
>>>         difficult to "read"
>>>
>>>         +1
>>>
>>>         i.e. The difference between the "Add PostGIS layers" and "Add
>>>         SpatiaLite layers" is that one has a regular cylinder and the
>>>         other has a fat-waisted hour-glass cylinder - about 20-30 pixels
>>>         are different in an icon that's got 1024 pixels! I have to look
>>>         at them in detail to see the differences. And there's still
>>>         MSSQL and Oracle icons to be created in the new schema which
>>>         using this system will only confuse things more.
>>>
>>>         Don't get me wrong, I like the style of the new icons, but
>>>         they're really hard to visually differentiate.
>>>
>>>         I did a quick google and came across this:
>>>
>>>         http://turbomilk.com/blog/**cookbook/icon_design/10_**
>>> mistakes_in_icon_design/<http://turbomilk.com/blog/cookbook/icon_design/10_mistakes_in_icon_design/>
>>>
>>>         The QGIS icons do all of the top three things.
>>>
>>>         Jonathan
>>>
>>>         On 24 May 2013 09:27, skampus
>>>         <stefano.campus at regione.**piemonte.it<stefano.campus at regione.piemonte.it>
>>>         <mailto:stefano.campus@**regione.piemonte.it<stefano.campus at regione.piemonte.it>>>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>         that could be a useful option.
>>>         sincerely, from my point of view, many icons are
>>>         unreadable/undistinguishable so i click them correctly only
>>>         because now i
>>>         remberer relative position
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>         --
>>>         View this message in context:
>>>         http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.**nabble.com/Re-Qgis-user-New-**
>>> Icons-difficult-to-read-**tp5055427p5055467.html<http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/Re-Qgis-user-New-Icons-difficult-to-read-tp5055427p5055467.html>
>>>         Sent from the Quantum GIS - Developer mailing list archive at
>>>         Nabble.com.
>>>
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>>
>> --
>> Marco Bernasocchi
>> http://opengis.ch
>>
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