[Kde-accessibility] [kde-artists] Bad Studies Are Worse: About the Recent Results on Detail in Icon Design

[Nuno Pinheiro]

A Quinta, 10 de Janeiro de 2013 10:22:10 mutlu_inek escreveu:

Bfffff dont worry, there is nothing wrong with the article. as  general rulle I 
try to keep the icons as simple as possible, and I have no doubt that the 
results are merly an indication of somthing I knew and strugle with, complex 
metafores are hard to explain in icons... 
Don't take it the wrong way but I have been doing icons for somtime now and 
have a bit of experirnce on them, exemple in the past studies I could allwyas 
predict the results, this results come as no surprise at all, and unfurtunatly 
wille in some cases I coud do better in most cases they are just the result of 
complex action being explosed via iconographie.

So dont worry im not mindlesly loking at this results. and historicly I have 
been very good at ignoring some "user feedback" aka in oxygen save icon is 
still a floppy disk.  

 


> Dear Icon Designers, Usability People and Survey Makers,
> 
> I am cross-posting a response I left on the blog entry "More is worse:
> About Detail in Icons" posted by Björn Balazs on User Promt and
> aggregated on Planet KDE. It can be found here:
> http://user-prompt.com/more-is-worse-about-detail-in-icons/
> 
> I do not intend to deride the work that has
> gone into this study, but I fear that the community may be misled by the
> results of a highly flawed methodology. Mind that I am not a statistician,
> but I know enough about this topic that I can spot some major flaws in
> no-time. Please find a part of the text (with less typos) below.
> 
> 
> """
> 
> This
> study is so flawed  that the value of its results is nonexistent. Taking it
> seriously may even be harmful.
> 
> 
> First of all, the distinction between low-detail
> and high-detail icons is highly inconsistent. Second, those in the first
> category point to rather well-known, well-entrenched and often-used actions
> the icons of which many will easily recognize, while the latter are less
> often used. Third, the latter category also includes icons such as the
> "auto-spellcheck" and the "spelling and grammar" icons that are very
> close to one another both in meaning and in iconic representation. Thus, an
> allegedly low-detail icons like "save" will score higher than either of the
> spell-related icons due to the inherent ambiguity. Concluding that this has
> to do with the level of detail (which in my opinion is very similar) is not
> the way to go.
> 
> Instead,
>  you would need two sets of icons that represent the same actions, one
> with more and one with less detail. Both icon sets would have to be
> equally known or unknown to your audience. A statistician might tell you
> more.
> 
> I do appreciate your work, but please
> don't encourage the F/OSS community to invest resources into design that
>  are misdirected based on well-meaning but simply wrongly executed
> studies.
> 
> Thank you.
> """
> 
> All the best,
> 
> mutlu
> 
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