Re: [HIG] Icons in application menus and dialog action buttons

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 24Oct2001 08:52PM (-0500), Gregory Merchan wrote:
> 
> Recommendation:
>   HIG should adress this by advising that:
>     * icons must not be used for application menu items
>     * icons must not be used for dialog action buttons except
>       a Help button which should have only the icon.
>     * icons must be used for global menu items (i.e., the panel)
> 
> Rationale:
>   The presence of icons on application menu items distracts from the supreme
> importance of the user's document. The mixed presence of icons results in
> a user interface that either appears broken or incomplete or as if it is
> calling special attention to those items with icons.

I think it could work well if we had a consistent and actually applied
policy on which items have icons.

Here are some of the kinds of items that may benefit from icons:

* Menu items that have corresponding toolbar items (perhaps we can
generalize this to items that might commonly be on the toolbar but not
in this app, or that are available as choices when customizing the
toolbar).

* Menu items corresponding to documents (Bookmarks, Open Recent, a
menu of currently opened documents or windows, etc).

* Menu items corresponding to applications (the Nautilus Open With
menu would benefit from some icons, IMO).

Maybe there are other cases.

Regards,

Maciej