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Interesting LICENSE: https://github.com/uswds/uswds/blob/develop/LICENSE.md https://github.com/uswds/uswds/blob/develop/LICENSE.md Wonder why they decided to g

Interesting LICENSE: https://github.com/uswds/uswds/blob/develop/LICENSE.md https://github.com/uswds/uswds/blob/develop/LICENSE.md Wonder why they decided to go with Material Icons vs building out their own icon library? US seems to have various glyphs all over the place, would be neat to see them consolidated in a standard icon library.

pcurve 3y ago
Creating icon set from scratch is rather difficult and time consuming. It also requires a lot of research to ensure usability. What ends up happening is designers will just start from existing icon set anyway to stay close to existing convention and mental model. I guess they felt it’s not the best use of their limited resources?
moritzwarhier 3y ago
It also mentions Font Awesome. Probably better to build on ubuquitous icon sets instead of wasting taxpayers money on redesigning exclamation mark icons. This would cost a lot of money. They can still augment with custom icons where it actually matters.
dclowd9901 3y ago
Really unfortunate. It’s not like we don’t have the will or capability. I’m hoping this is just while they iron out licensing agreements.
- glompers 3y ago
  Could you or someone please help explain why a new icon library or license would be really fortunate compared to this choice?
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
azemetre 3y ago
How does public domain license compare to something like GPL? Isn't public domain better?
- dhosek 3y ago
  Public domain allows you to do whatever you want with the work. GPL requires derivative works to also be GPL’d. As a matter of law, all copyrightable work done by Federal employees as part of their job is public domain. This is yet another loss to society in the trend towards privatizing government operations.
  - vxNsr 3y ago
    Can’t tell what you’re lamenting.
    - wlesieutre 3y ago
      If the federal government designed their own icon set it would be available for anyone to use without license restrictions. Since they’ve decided to use someone else’s icon system, they aren’t making a public domain set of icons.
      - encomiast 3y ago
        But also, since they’ve decided to use someone else’s icon system, taxpayers are not paying for yet another icon system, when an existing one under an Apache license is available.
        dhosek 3y ago
        This is true. In some ways, Apache/MIT licensing is superior to public domain licensing as some jurisdictions (Germany, IIRC) don’t recognize public domain as a status.
    - dhosek 3y ago
      I’m lamenting the fact that by contracting out work to private companies, the government-sponsored work product belongs to the private companies and not the public domain. I suspect from the part of those architecting the contracting (on both the government and private side) that this is a feature, not a bug.
rswerve 3y ago
There is a standard set. https://designsystem.digital.gov/components/icon/ https://designsystem.digital.gov/components/icon/
- candiddevmike 3y ago
  Those are material icons
asoneth 3y ago
Producing a bespoke icon library for a large organization can be shockingly expensive depending on how the organization is structured. I've worked on projects where dozens of different stakeholders needed to sign off on the icon library resulting in thousands of person-hours of design review meetings alone. If I could save millions of dollars by picking an existing icon library and adding only what is needed that seems like a smart move to me.

pcurve 3y ago

Creating icon set from scratch is rather difficult and time consuming. It also requires a lot of research to ensure usability. What ends up happening is designers will just start from existing icon set anyway to stay close to existing convention and mental model. I guess they felt it’s not the best use of their limited resources?

moritzwarhier 3y ago

It also mentions Font Awesome. Probably better to build on ubuquitous icon sets instead of wasting taxpayers money on redesigning exclamation mark icons. This would cost a lot of money. They can still augment with custom icons where it actually matters.

dclowd9901 3y ago

Really unfortunate. It’s not like we don’t have the will or capability. I’m hoping this is just while they iron out licensing agreements.

glompers 3y ago
Could you or someone please help explain why a new icon library or license would be really fortunate compared to this choice?

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

azemetre 3y ago

How does public domain license compare to something like GPL? Isn't public domain better?

dhosek 3y ago
Public domain allows you to do whatever you want with the work. GPL requires derivative works to also be GPL’d. As a matter of law, all copyrightable work done by Federal employees as part of their job is public domain. This is yet another loss to society in the trend towards privatizing government operations.
- vxNsr 3y ago
  Can’t tell what you’re lamenting.
  - wlesieutre 3y ago
    If the federal government designed their own icon set it would be available for anyone to use without license restrictions. Since they’ve decided to use someone else’s icon system, they aren’t making a public domain set of icons.
    - encomiast 3y ago
      But also, since they’ve decided to use someone else’s icon system, taxpayers are not paying for yet another icon system, when an existing one under an Apache license is available.
      - dhosek 3y ago
        This is true. In some ways, Apache/MIT licensing is superior to public domain licensing as some jurisdictions (Germany, IIRC) don’t recognize public domain as a status.
  - dhosek 3y ago
    I’m lamenting the fact that by contracting out work to private companies, the government-sponsored work product belongs to the private companies and not the public domain. I suspect from the part of those architecting the contracting (on both the government and private side) that this is a feature, not a bug.

rswerve 3y ago

There is a standard set. https://designsystem.digital.gov/components/icon/ https://designsystem.digital.gov/components/icon/

candiddevmike 3y ago
Those are material icons

asoneth 3y ago

Producing a bespoke icon library for a large organization can be shockingly expensive depending on how the organization is structured. I've worked on projects where dozens of different stakeholders needed to sign off on the icon library resulting in thousands of person-hours of design review meetings alone. If I could save millions of dollars by picking an existing icon library and adding only what is needed that seems like a smart move to me.