Oh well...

[Kurt Pfeifle]

Michael Brade wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> the kcontrol icon changed again---however, now I don't think any user will 
> find it anymore. Last time I wrote it would be better to reduce the usage of 
> black in favor of green, now the opposite happened. Can anyone tell me why?? 
> Just have a look at the attached screenie and tell me if you find the konsole 
> and kcontrol icon at first sight.
> 
> Artists: why don't you have a look at kcontrol itself? Just start it and scale 
> the big kcontrol logo down, it's perfect already IMHO.
> 
> Ciao,
> 
> 


While I am not current any more with CVS (my compilation is 5 days old now,
I have been showing it at "LinuxDay.at" in Dornbirn/Austria at the weekend),
I am still quite unhappy with the new icons in terms of usability. (BTW, I
received much of the same feedback to this issue(s) as I had reported back
from the LinuxWorldExpo presentations -- it is a great pity that the icon
designers don't seem to have been confronted with a lot of direc user feedback
lately...).

Here are some thoughts on the matter, which won't change a thing at the moment
but which might be considered for future work:

* I once read a few very well worded paragraphs (written by tackat) on
   icon design, arguing that simplicity, recognizability and distinctivness
   are key to a good icon set.

* I thought that most icons (designed by tackat?) in past default KDE
   installations met these requirements.

* I think that most icons (designed by tackat?) in the current default
   KDE CVS installation don't meet that requirement any more: :-\
    --> simplicity is gone -- most icons now are multi-color, multi-object,
        multi-meaning type of *paintings*
    --> recognizability is gone -- most icons for the same apps look very
        different to their pre-decessors
    --> distinctiveness is gone -- most icons look too similar from a little
        "farer" away and still, after weeks and weeks of working with them,
        I can't target any of the most-used ones "without thinking" (this
        also goes for the iconified windows in minimized in kicker: konsole,
        konqueror, kcontrol,...)

This new all-blue-icon-theme makes it very hard to recognize some of the most
important symbols by their pre-dominant color.

* Maybe (be)for(e) the next release icon designers should study some
   scientific research results on human sense organ recognition patterns?

* Maybe (be)for(e) the next release the default icon theme should be
   committed well before the first release candidate and then be modified
   according to user feedback?

Bottom line: keramik is good for artists' eyes and minds -- it is bad for
usability. The only icon I still recognize immediately is the "KHelpcenter"
one (which still is a red-and-white lifebelt, not [yet?] fallen prey to the
keramik-ization of our blue-loving icon designers...)

Ciao,
Kurt