Re: [Usability]Revenge of the Paperless Office

[Seth Nickell <snickell stanford edu>]

> So, is it just me, or do we maybe need to start designing some
> application icons that aren't just a pencil and a bit of paper at
> different angles, to stop eejits like me continually switching to the
> wrong application?  :)

Agreed. One of the points here is that icons (well, their designers I
guess) need to constantly worry about the space of other icons you are
trying to be distinct from. In this case the use of a pencil to signify
"editing" is not a very useful piece of information since a great number
of programs allow editing of some sort (other writing utensil + paper
icons include AbiWord). 

Eliminating this common item and using the extra space to emphasize
distinguishing characteristics would probably be enough. So gedit could
be just a notepad, evolution an envelope, and gnome-calendar a daytimer
(or possibly a pin-up calendar).

-Seth