The Icon Question

[Diana Fong]

After Máirín sent out the email pertaining to "The Icon Question" a few 
weeks ago...I braced myself for responses...for or against it.  To my 
surprise, however, there was not much response either 
way...which..._could_ be a good thing.  I therefore, feel like I might 
be poking at the hornet's nest a bit as I write this email to point to 
the recent additions I've made to 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/BluecurveAndBeyond and to inquire 
how you all feel about it.

I've also noticed a lot of feedback to the puplet icons Máirín created 
recently and see two strands of issues being discussed.  One being that 
the puplet icons do not match the current bluecurve icons (this 
conversation is being addressed should remain in that thread) and the 
other being concerns about the new icon look in general (which is what 
I'm interested in and think should be looked into).

Let's discuss. =)  Mockups and sketches are welcome and most helpful.  
Subjective "I hate the whole theme" comments are less so.  Try to be a 
bit specific...I'm not saying, pixel for pixel, but...why? is it the 
colours, the perspective, or you just think that bluecurve is the best 
and should not be changed.

Thanks
Diana




Máirín Duffy wrote:
> Hey everybody,
>
> Since we've gotten onto the topic of the default icon theme for Fedora -
>
> Well, above all, everyone here wants Fedora to have a slick, 
> great-looking desktop, right? That's the main goal of the Fedora Art 
> project. With Fedora Core 5 we've started to move in that direction 
> with a new logo (thanks to Matt Muñoz) and new theming elements 
> (thanks to Diana) and have received positive feedback. However, we are 
> still using Bluecurve as the default icon set, which has been around 
> for a few years now. Among the complaints about Bluecurve is that it's 
> a cartoony, and 'dated.' So it would be nice to have a fresh, slick 
> look on the icon front for Fedora.
>
> Tango has been suggested as an alternative to Bluecurve, but nobody 
> has really picked this up to make it happen. (Remember, Fedora is a 
> community project, you vote with your time & effort.) As the front 
> page of the Tango Project webpage states, it is "A *suggested* default 
> native look [1, emphasis mine]." Diana, myself, and other Fedora users 
> and developers that we've talked to feel the Tango look is a bit too 
> close to Bluecurve to address the complaints we've heard about 
> Bluecurve. It feels more like a next-gen Bluecurve than something new.
>
> We realize that the look of icons for an operating system can have 
> far-reaching effects. An example I like to use to illustrate this 
> point is the influence the look of Windows XP Icons [2] appear to have 
> had in the somewhat recent UPS logo redesign [3]. One of the core 
> goals of Fedora in general is innovation - looking towards the future 
> [4]. Can we do that visually - can we make an innovative and cultural 
> impact on the world with Fedora while using Tango? It doesn't seem 
> likely.
>
> The main argument that we've been given as a reason for adopting Tango 
> is (to roughly paraphrase) - 'it won't work unless everyone uses it.' 
> The main goal of the Tango Project is: "to help create a consistent 
> graphical user interface experience for free and Open Source 
> software[1]," presumably to make FOSS more usable. I'd like to draw a 
> parallel between this notion of 'all icons should be the same to be 
> usable' to Jakob's Nielsen's idea of usability - his website, which 
> may very well be the height of usability, but is far from pleasurable 
> or delightful to look at. [5] There is definitely some conflict 
> between visual consistency across desktop distributions and the 
> branding of each said distribution, but both are important. Agreeing 
> on a standard set of metaphors / objects to illustrate for icons for 
> each item in the Tango naming spec, for example, would go a long way 
> towards meeting Tango's quite noble goal without requiring Fedora to 
> sacrifice its brand its own desktop.
>
> Looking towards the future of Fedora's visual design, Diana has put 
> together a sample mockup (20 icons) of a possible 'next gen' Fedora 
> icon theme. This is an experimental work-in-progress to explore future 
> possibilities - a suggestion for a default Fedora icon look. We'd like 
> to keep this an open discussion. Remember, the goal here is a 
> great-looking desktop. Some of us (Diana and I) think we could do 
> better than the Tango look. So here it is:
>
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/BluecurveAndBeyond
>
> Specifically:
>
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/BluecurveAndBeyond?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=screen01_28.png 
>
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/BluecurveAndBeyond?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=screen02_29.png 
>
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/BluecurveAndBeyond?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=screen03_30.png 
>
>
> So, to be clear:
>
> * Are we definitely staying with Bluecurve as the default icon theme 
> in Fedora?
>
>   Yes, until there is a better alternative that helps us meet our goals.
>
> * Are we moving to Tango? Or something else?
>
>   We are not moving to Tango right now. We'd like to move to something 
> new in the future.
>
> * What icon set should Fedora Art contributors be working on if they 
> want to create new icons?
>
>   You can continue to work on Bluecurve icons, keeping in mind that we 
> are looking to eventually retire it as the default theme. You can also 
> help us out in coming up with a better alternative - we welcome any 
> feedback / proposed revisions to Diana's mockup, or you come up with 
> your own.
>
> ~m
>
>
> [1] http://www.tango-project.org/
> [2] http://www.idblog.org/archives/000162.html
> [3] 
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwxp/html/winxpicons.asp 
>
> [4] http://www.redhat.com/magazine/014dec05/features/fedora/
> [5] http://www.useit.com/
>
>