0.08 Icons/Images - Help Wanted! (Page 1 of 5)

I'm fine with people submitting their ideas, but I like the current one a lot, so it may be difficult to top it.

Please someone hurry with the icon/image help.

The random icon needs a heavy tune-up, and it would be very useful iff I could tell the difference between on and off.

Oh how I wish I paid attention in art class.

Those buttons are using the glossy/"glass button" look that Leopard has ditched though.

In Leopard, the button style has become light grayish buttons with a gradient but that are not glossy.

examples: the Finder, Safari, iTunes... most apps, actually, except those that use the "pellet"-type button (e.g., Mail, Preview)

But I've been thinking... what's wrong with the current set of toolbar buttons?

This may be because I've gotten used to them, but honestly, they look fine to me.

They use the Leopard button style. Check.

And sure, they're nothing amazing, but how amazing can you make the play symbol? Or the pause symbol? Or the rewind/fast forward symbols?

The only issue could be the File Tree button, which indeed does not fit with the new button style. Other than that, I don't really see a need to replace the current ones.

So my thoughts: keep the current buttons (except File Tree), and just add the new ones.

As for the Shuffle button...

I would normally agree with the suggestion of using a "lit up"/colored version of the Shuffle button for "on."

However, since there are many Repeat modes (not just on/off), the Repeat button does not light up; instead, the button image changes to represent the current mode.

So to be consistent with that, I think the Shuffle button should also change the image to the current mode. The easiest way would obviously to have the bars be in a random order instead of being placed from the shortest to the longest.

Lightning is an appealing idea for the shuffle symbol, definitely.  Another option would be something from a slot machine, though none of the relevant symbols (lemon, cherry, bar, seven) are quite distinctive enough...

The first thing that came to my mind when I thought about shuffle was dice, but since Play is using that, I think Cog might want its own symbol.  Unless -- we could totally nerd out and use Dungeons & Dragons polyhedral dice!    Probably not enough room for that, though.

Of course, there's also the symbol for chaos, which I believe is a circle with lines going in all eight cardinal directions...probably too close to Cog's wagon wheel.

What about a luck symbol, like a clover or a horseshoe?  (Aye, me lucky charms...)

Last edited by goldenband (2008-03-15 18:56:15)

Well, here's my opinion.

This is gonna sound weird, but I find it too... creative. ;p

As mentioned before, I find the default toolbar buttons should be more standard (and yes, boring if you will) for the sake of:
1) adhering to standards
and
2) comprehensibility by as many users as possible (which partially results from #1)

As Zitz said, if/when a skins system is implemented, we can go wild with the buttons. Shuffle could be a dancing monkey for all I care. ;p

But till then, for the "regular" interface, IMO, we should stick to, well, "regular" buttons.

Hmm... but here's an interesting idea. How about having the toolbar button set be customizable?

I'm guessing a skins system would be fairly complicated, and it would be a while before one will be implemented, if at all.

But being able to change the set of toolbar buttons... this doesn't seem too difficult to implement. (I could be wrong.)

This would allow a fairly good deal of personalization without too much development effort.

And yes, this would allow for more "crazy" toolbar buttons to be made and used. The default toolbar button set would be very standard (and boring) buttons, while alternate button sets would be made (by anyone who wants to do so), and these could be as creative as one wants.

Thoughts?