[kde-guidelines] Styleguide: Icon design

[Heiko Tietze]

On Tuesday 31 December 2013, 15:08:16 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> Arrows indeed are often problematic. In a usability test of an email app I 
> just did they used left/right arrows for reply/forward, but most test users 
> confused them with previous/next email.
> 
> It seems to me that there is a strong association between left/right arrows 
> and previous/next (whether it's previous/ntext step in a wizard or
> previous/next item in a list). Therefore, they seem to work well for that,
> but not for anything else. And even if they mean previous/next, they seem
> to only work well if accompanied by text.
> 
> So maybe we could write "Use arrows only if they can easily be related to 
> spacial features such as previous/next item in a list or up/down one level
> in  a hierarchy (or if they indeed mean "move left/right/up/down"). Avoid
> using arrows metaphorically (such as for reply/forward or undo/redo)."?
Very nice. I took the freedom to replace 'list' by 'sequence' because a list 
is usually arranged up/down. And I think the part in brackets can be omitted 
because it's clear from the other text.

** Use arrows only if they can easily be related to spatial features such as 
''Previous/Next'' in a sequence or ''Up/Down'' in a hierarchy. Avoid using 
arrows metaphorically (such as for ''Reply/Forward'' or ''Undo/Redo'').