On creating a new save icon for the world
David Friedman gets excited about a new save icon on his blog. His thinking: the floppy disk is archaic and many current computer users have likely never used or seen one. Therefore, he creates something new.
I’m not really sure the floppy disk save icon is a problem anyway, for two reasons. First, as iOS has shown, the very concept of manually saving files will soon be obsolete. Mac OS X Lion will soon enable devs to make apps regularly autosave (and provide versioning) on the Mac desktop; other systems will rapidly follow suit. Secondly, popular icons and icon concepts transcend technology and time. As journo chum Chris Brennan wryly pointed out on Twitter:
In the UK the sign for a level crossing is a steam train. I’m not so sure a floppy disk as a save icon is the end of the world.
The difficultly in replacing such icons is two-fold. First, you have to essentially override what’s in people’s heads, icons that are recognised in an instant. Secondly, you have to create something that’s at least as recognisable as what you originally had. This is where Friedman failed, in using a baseball home plate.
The “safe” icon is pointy on one end like an arrow. This can be used to indicate where your file is saved. If the latest version of your file is saved locally, it points down. If the latest version of your file is saved on a server somewhere, it points up.
I’m sure if you know baseball, that all makes sense. But I don’t really know much about baseball—it’s not really a worldwide sport. Similarly, replace the save icon with some kind of football (as in soccer) icon and you’d have Americans scratching their heads. And anyone else who doesn’t know or care for football.
To be fair, it’s very clear that Friedman was only experimenting and playing around, but his article shows how tough it can be to replace existing and popular icons with something that can and will be recognised almost universally. In the meantime, he jokes:
But I still like my idea and urge it to be adopted by anyone writing software for Americans who are baseball fans without internet access or a modern operating system.
Something Susan Kare said when I spoke to her when doing my university dissertation really stuck with me: an icon doesn’t have to clearly represent its function – sometimes, it’s too abstract an idea – but it has to be so that once you’ve learned what it’s for, you always remember. From that point of view, a floppy disk is fine.
How about… a safe. And when you have changes waiting to be committed, it’s a safe with an open door. When you commit the save, the safe is securely shut. A globally recognisable icon with support for states. Done.
how i hated it when word 7 hide save somewhere..
icons are weird things, we did a research some time ago which pictogram would best represent ‘rent a bike’ for the dutch national public bikes scheme, in the end it was a bike with the word rent above it.. all the designers went mad, as there lovely ideas weren’t recognised by the public at all..