From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Jul 14 18:13:24 1996 Return-Path: owner-chat Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id SAA26049 for chat-outgoing; Sun, 14 Jul 1996 18:13:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: from gatekeeper.fsl.noaa.gov (gatekeeper.fsl.noaa.gov [137.75.131.181]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id SAA26038 for ; Sun, 14 Jul 1996 18:13:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from emu.fsl.noaa.gov (kelly@emu.fsl.noaa.gov [137.75.60.32]) by gatekeeper.fsl.noaa.gov (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id BAA18233; Mon, 15 Jul 1996 01:13:22 GMT Message-Id: <199607150113.BAA18233@gatekeeper.fsl.noaa.gov> Received: by emu.fsl.noaa.gov (1.40.112.4/16.2) id AA216453226; Sun, 14 Jul 1996 19:13:47 -0600 Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 19:13:47 -0600 From: Sean Kelly To: jfieber@indiana.edu Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: (message from John Fieber on Sun, 14 Jul 1996 14:30:41 -0500 (EST)) Subject: Re: FreeBSD keyboard Sender: owner-chat@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >>>>> "John" == John Fieber writes: John> Universal, culturally neutral, self-evident icons are a John> myth, but once an icon mapping has been learned, it can be John> much quicker to pick out an icon among others than a word John> among others. There is a reason road signs are not all John> rectangular with black text on a white background! Except that road signs usually aren't lined up in a perfect, uniform row in a toolbar, with all the same widths, heights, and all the same colors. If they varied in size, shape, color, and placement---like road signs---it'd be quite easy to pick out the search icon and the zoom-in icon. John> (Whether the use of screen space is warranted is separate John> issue.) Warning, entering Edward Tufte mode: At each workstation are two powerful information processing units: the brain and the computer. Yet all communication between these two units must pass through the low-bandwidth computer monitor. Making efficient use of monitor space is therefore paramount; destroy all icons as they waste precious screen real estate! -- Sean Kelly NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory kelly@fsl.noaa.gov Boulder Colorado USA http://www-sdd.fsl.noaa.gov/~kelly/