[GRASS-dev] New GRASS icons

[Michael Barton]

Good discussion below. I look forward to seeing more of these. I  
agree that the action/object approach is a good way to go. Not only  
does it reduce the number of primitives, but gives users a greater  
sense of predictability in the functions that are called by icon  
buttons.

Michael
____________________
C. Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
Director of Graduate Studies
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
Arizona State University

Phone: 480-965-6262
Fax: 480-965-7671
www: <www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton>



On Mar 20, 2008, at 8:41 PM, grass-dev-request at lists.osgeo.org wrote:

> Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:15:35 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Robert Szczepanek <grass at szczepanek.pl>
> Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] New GRASS icons
> To: grass-dev at lists.osgeo.org
> Message-ID: <16191724.post at talk.nabble.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
>
> Martin Landa-2 wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Michael Barton wrote:
>>>> Second step for new icons:
>>>> http://www.szczepanek.pl/icons.grass/index.php#2
>>>> Please take a look at >layer< and symbols for general actions.
>>>
>>>  New - I don't know. But I don't know what a good icon for "new"  
>>> would
>>>  be. "*" as a modifier may be as good as it gets. "+" on a "folder"?
>>
>> E.g. "create new workspace", "new raster map", etc.?
>>
>> -- 
>> Martin Landa <landa.martin gmail.com> * http://gama.fsv.cvut.cz/ 
>> ~landa *
>>
>
> Asterix (*) is recently used as synonim of 'new/create'.
> Plus (+) for adding item that already exist.
> My general idea is to separate actions from objects. This way  
> creation and
> recognition of icons will be simpler.
> Create new workspace -> is connection of workspace (object) and  
> create new
> (action)
> New raster map -> raster map (object) & new/create (action)
> This approach should significantly decrease number of primitives.  
> We just
> need to prepare set of basic objects and actions. Probably some 70%  
> of icons
> can be represented using this method.
>
>
> Michael Barton wrote:
>>
>>>>  Open, save - make sense. But open folder and disk icons have  
>>>> become
>>>>  very widely recognized.
>>
>
> I will prepare this option also but there is no much space in  
> 'action' part
> of icon (right bottom).
>
>
> Michael Barton wrote:
>>
>>>>  Import, export - look like they mean "forward" and "back". What  
>>>> about
>>>>  arrow partly overlapping a folder? Arrowhead pointing towards  
>>>> folder
>>>>  and overlapping it (tail extending beyond the folder) for  
>>>> import and
>>>>  reverse for export? Something along those lines?
>>
>
> Good idea, I will check it.
>
> An alternative to present toolbar functionality could be context  
> toolbar
> i.e. one toolbar with several icons related to the same object (eg.  
> raster
> layer). In this case for every object we need separate toolbar and  
> we can
> minimize icon information just to action icon.
>
>
> Michael Barton wrote:
>>
>>>>  Layers: Most GIS people (I think) tend to see maps and layers as
>>>>  rectangular so that the edge of the layer lines up with the  
>>>> edge of
>>>>  the screen. So the diamond is less easy to understand in the
>>>>  abstract. Perhaps color will make it obvious. If so, it is an  
>>>> elegant
>>>>  design. I'd go with the left one over the right one.
>>
>
> You are right, but how to make icons for many similar objects.
> We have many objects that in fact are rectangles - layer,  
> workspace, display
> monitor, etc. At list the most frequent (like layer) must be very  
> easy to
> recognize. So they should be somehow different. This is just one of
> proposals.
> List of such important 'objects' (especially rectangle ones) with  
> 'actions'
> could help me a lot.
> http://www.szczepanek.pl/icons.grass/index.php#3
>
> And talking about colors. Accessibility is important, so icon  
> should 'work'
> without colors. We will add them at final stage.
>
> Robert
>
> -- 
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/New-GRASS-icons- 
> tp16054598p16191724.html
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