5 ms·

The play button points at the direction the tape will roll in your cassette player. It had a very practical function once upon a time.

Isamu 7y ago
Wow, I completely forgot about that fact. So the play triangle was an arrow saying "tape is rolling in this direction" and fast-forward and reverse double triangles were "tape is rolling fast" in the respective directions. Did these buttons first show up on cassette players? The reel-to-reels I can think of had multi-position switches.
- grawprog 7y ago
  https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tasqz/eli5_why_is_the_play_button_a_sideways_triangle/ https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tasqz/e... Here's an interesting reddit discussion about it with an image of an older style play button. And an older more in depth discussion on the same thing http://www.stackprinter.com/export?service=ux.stackexchange&question=41434&printer=false&linktohome=true http://www.stackprinter.com/export?service=ux.stackexchange&...
- thedirt0115 7y ago
  "They first appeared as tape transport symbols on reel-to-reel tape decks during the mid-1960s." See https://gizmodo.com/the-secret-histories-of-those-ing-computer-symbols-5612630 https://gizmodo.com/the-secret-histories-of-those-ing-comput..., which is linked to from this article which you may also find interesting: https://medium.com/@mwichary/the-ghost-tech-in-todays-language-c3becc9ae30b https://medium.com/@mwichary/the-ghost-tech-in-todays-langua...
- c3534l 7y ago
  I looked it up and they date back to the 1960s on reel-to-reel tape recorders. The pause button was added later when companies found that they couldn't properly translate the word pause into every language. The idea is that the two bars look like the square stop button and look like a frame stopped while it is rolling to the next frame. The reasoning behind the square is that it's the play triangle without a direction; it is stopped in both directions. This machine is apparently from 1961, so it must have been quite early in the 60s: http://www.reelprosoundguys.com/images/1962_GRUNDIG_TK_46.jpg http://www.reelprosoundguys.com/images/1962_GRUNDIG_TK_46.jp...
Gravityloss 7y ago
I think many traffic signs are visual. Ie they would not work as well if you did random assignment of sign graphics vs its purpose. Not all of them are, of course. For a very basic and obvious example, possibility to turn right vs turn left signs look different not just because of convention but they resemble the shape of the road.
dspillett 7y ago
And some tape decks supported playing the other side of the cassette without flipping, so had a second play button with the arrow reversed, or for those that did it automatically, one button with both arrows.
ta999999171 7y ago
Or the media progress-bar.

Isamu 7y ago

Wow, I completely forgot about that fact. So the play triangle was an arrow saying "tape is rolling in this direction" and fast-forward and reverse double triangles were "tape is rolling fast" in the respective directions. Did these buttons first show up on cassette players? The reel-to-reels I can think of had multi-position switches.

grawprog 7y ago
https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tasqz/eli5_why_is_the_play_button_a_sideways_triangle/ https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tasqz/e... Here's an interesting reddit discussion about it with an image of an older style play button. And an older more in depth discussion on the same thing http://www.stackprinter.com/export?service=ux.stackexchange&question=41434&printer=false&linktohome=true http://www.stackprinter.com/export?service=ux.stackexchange&...
thedirt0115 7y ago
"They first appeared as tape transport symbols on reel-to-reel tape decks during the mid-1960s." See https://gizmodo.com/the-secret-histories-of-those-ing-computer-symbols-5612630 https://gizmodo.com/the-secret-histories-of-those-ing-comput..., which is linked to from this article which you may also find interesting: https://medium.com/@mwichary/the-ghost-tech-in-todays-language-c3becc9ae30b https://medium.com/@mwichary/the-ghost-tech-in-todays-langua...
c3534l 7y ago
I looked it up and they date back to the 1960s on reel-to-reel tape recorders. The pause button was added later when companies found that they couldn't properly translate the word pause into every language. The idea is that the two bars look like the square stop button and look like a frame stopped while it is rolling to the next frame. The reasoning behind the square is that it's the play triangle without a direction; it is stopped in both directions. This machine is apparently from 1961, so it must have been quite early in the 60s: http://www.reelprosoundguys.com/images/1962_GRUNDIG_TK_46.jpg http://www.reelprosoundguys.com/images/1962_GRUNDIG_TK_46.jp...

Gravityloss 7y ago

I think many traffic signs are visual. Ie they would not work as well if you did random assignment of sign graphics vs its purpose. Not all of them are, of course. For a very basic and obvious example, possibility to turn right vs turn left signs look different not just because of convention but they resemble the shape of the road.

dspillett 7y ago

And some tape decks supported playing the other side of the cassette without flipping, so had a second play button with the arrow reversed, or for those that did it automatically, one button with both arrows.

ta999999171 7y ago

Or the media progress-bar.