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This is awfully condescending towards people in their twenties and younger. > Want to indicate Settings or Setup to a twenty something? Show them a tool they'v

This is awfully condescending towards people in their twenties and younger. > Want to indicate Settings or Setup to a twenty something? Show them a tool they've never used in their lives. > If you don't know who Johnny Carson is, how could you know that this is a old-style microphone? > No one under 30 has seen a Polaroid in years but we keep using them for icons. We don't live in a cultural vacuum where everything that existed prior to our birth ceases to exist or be represented. We watch old movies, we watch old TV, we read old books and we see old photographs. Some things go missing and some things stick around. The icons that stop having a useful meaning will either disappear or be transformed and some icons will come to be a somewhat abstract representation of what they do, even if they're based on things that existed in the past. I don't understand people's obsession with telling everyone they should modernize their icons - if you think so, then you should do it. See how your users react.

jmsduran 14y ago
Actually, I find the article quite funny and thought provoking. It makes you wonder how long icons like these will remain the norm, and if they'll ever change.
davidjohnstone 14y ago
I didn't like the post as much as I expected to. The floppy disk as an icon for save is a legitimate complaint, in the sense that it is early technology that has been deprecated by later technology, and [almost] nobody will ever use one again. That said, good luck finding a new icon. The difficulty is that the concept of "saving" only came about with computers, and unlike zooming or even grouping things together in folders, finding a real-life pictorial representation of saving is... difficult. But the others... The last time I checked, bookmarks, calendars, envelopes, magnifying glasses, and screwdrivers all exist in the real world and are used regularly by a lot of people, and they aren't going to go away any time soon. Also, it's not hard to find microphones today that look a lot like the one in the icon.
- DanBC 14y ago
  I'm glad we're using a floppy disk rather than the alternative (dead now) "piggy bank". Imagine how confused most people are seeing a tiny pig in the tool bar. It's an effort to get from "little pig" to "piggy bank" to "save". And that's for people with english as a first language.
- shanselman 14y ago
  True, I was stretching on many of them. I ended up not having a good way to end the post, and it seemed like I was saying that "these are all old" when I meant to say "these won't always be around."
corin_ 14y ago
For many of these it's more than just remembering them. The following items I've used in the past week: Clipboard, bookmark, calendar (physical), folder (physical), handset phone, envelope, screwdriver. And in the past decade: a microphone that looks exactly like the one pictured (use plenty of slightly less retro ones all the time), a Polaroid camera, a magnifying glass, binoculars, a voicemail-inspiring cassette, an address book, a floppy disk. Over time they may become more and more forgotten, but a lot of them aren't that old - I'm 22 and the radio-button radio is the only one on the list I've never used.
potatolicious 14y ago
I too think this was condescending, arrogant, and off the mark. I was born well after rabbit-ear TVs, but I know one when I see it. Ditto, Polaroids were a quaint novelty even when growing up, but I still know a "polaroid border" on an image when I see it. Indeed, the old style microphones (a la Siri) haven't been used in decades before I was born, but yet the iconic shape is unmistakable to anyone in my generation. Indeed, the author seems out of touch with the state of 20-somethings right now - if anything present-day 20-somethings are the most Polaroid-obsessed generation in quite some time. The market for old, restored Polaroid cameras has exploded in recent years. That iconic Polaroid camera icon on Instagram is quite recognizable to the youth of today. As iconography this seems hardly relevant. When's the last time the author used a magnifying glass for real? Hell, even in the old days how often did people ever use magnifying glasses? But it certainly has no trouble being the universal symbol for "search". This is the power of iconography - they are not the objects from which they are derived, and over time and use they take on meaning of their own.
vacri 14y ago
I'm nearly 40 and I've never seen one of those old-fashioned microphones. According to the author, it seems I should have trouble recognising it.
nollidge 14y ago
I think calling it "condescending" is awfully uncharitable. It seems obvious to me that any curmudgeonliness was tongue-in-cheek, but maybe that's because I'm more familiar with Scott's writing.

jmsduran 14y ago

Actually, I find the article quite funny and thought provoking. It makes you wonder how long icons like these will remain the norm, and if they'll ever change.

davidjohnstone 14y ago

I didn't like the post as much as I expected to. The floppy disk as an icon for save is a legitimate complaint, in the sense that it is early technology that has been deprecated by later technology, and [almost] nobody will ever use one again. That said, good luck finding a new icon. The difficulty is that the concept of "saving" only came about with computers, and unlike zooming or even grouping things together in folders, finding a real-life pictorial representation of saving is... difficult. But the others... The last time I checked, bookmarks, calendars, envelopes, magnifying glasses, and screwdrivers all exist in the real world and are used regularly by a lot of people, and they aren't going to go away any time soon. Also, it's not hard to find microphones today that look a lot like the one in the icon.

DanBC 14y ago
I'm glad we're using a floppy disk rather than the alternative (dead now) "piggy bank". Imagine how confused most people are seeing a tiny pig in the tool bar. It's an effort to get from "little pig" to "piggy bank" to "save". And that's for people with english as a first language.
shanselman 14y ago
True, I was stretching on many of them. I ended up not having a good way to end the post, and it seemed like I was saying that "these are all old" when I meant to say "these won't always be around."

corin_ 14y ago

For many of these it's more than just remembering them. The following items I've used in the past week: Clipboard, bookmark, calendar (physical), folder (physical), handset phone, envelope, screwdriver. And in the past decade: a microphone that looks exactly like the one pictured (use plenty of slightly less retro ones all the time), a Polaroid camera, a magnifying glass, binoculars, a voicemail-inspiring cassette, an address book, a floppy disk. Over time they may become more and more forgotten, but a lot of them aren't that old - I'm 22 and the radio-button radio is the only one on the list I've never used.

potatolicious 14y ago

I too think this was condescending, arrogant, and off the mark. I was born well after rabbit-ear TVs, but I know one when I see it. Ditto, Polaroids were a quaint novelty even when growing up, but I still know a "polaroid border" on an image when I see it. Indeed, the old style microphones (a la Siri) haven't been used in decades before I was born, but yet the iconic shape is unmistakable to anyone in my generation. Indeed, the author seems out of touch with the state of 20-somethings right now - if anything present-day 20-somethings are the most Polaroid-obsessed generation in quite some time. The market for old, restored Polaroid cameras has exploded in recent years. That iconic Polaroid camera icon on Instagram is quite recognizable to the youth of today. As iconography this seems hardly relevant. When's the last time the author used a magnifying glass for real? Hell, even in the old days how often did people ever use magnifying glasses? But it certainly has no trouble being the universal symbol for "search". This is the power of iconography - they are not the objects from which they are derived, and over time and use they take on meaning of their own.

vacri 14y ago

I'm nearly 40 and I've never seen one of those old-fashioned microphones. According to the author, it seems I should have trouble recognising it.

nollidge 14y ago

I think calling it "condescending" is awfully uncharitable. It seems obvious to me that any curmudgeonliness was tongue-in-cheek, but maybe that's because I'm more familiar with Scott's writing.