Re: [Usability] Save Icon

[Steven Garrity <stevelist silverorange com>]

Sarah Berry wrote:
> Thank you for your responses to my other suggestions.  Another
> thought that has occurred to me is that the "Save" icon in GEdit and
> other applications may no longer be appropriate.  As floppy disks are
> rapidly becoming archaic and are no longer included on many systems,
> perhaps a new icon could be created?  Unfortunately, I cannot offer
> any constructive criticism in the form of what a suitable replacement
> image might consist of.

Sarah,
We've been debating this issue over at the Tango Project [1]. For now, 
the best alternative we've come to is an arrow pointing into a hard-drive.

Here is a summary of some of the issues we have been considering:

1) The floppy disk isn't common anymore. There are lots of younger 
people who will have grown up using a PC and have never seen a floppy disk.

2) The floppy disk is a very common save icon - people are used to it 
(probably - I don't know of any research).

3) Is a hard-drive icon any better? Do people know what a hard-drive is 
or what it looks like? We don't always know you are saving to a hard-drive.

4) Is a folder better? It removes to direct reference to hardware, which 
is nice

5) Arrow-into-folder is a common "download" icon. Is saving a different 
action than downloading? They are fundamentally similar - especially 
when done from a web-browser (download a picture or save it to disk - 
same thing). However, I doubt people think of "downloading" their 
document from memory to disk (saving).

6) "We shouldn't have to save at all." Probably/maybe. Doesn't mean we 
should try to find a better icon in the meantime.

These are just my collection of thoughts - I don't have any research 
behind any of this (maybe BetterDesktop.org could help?).

Cheers,
Steven Garrity

[1] http://tango-project.org/