InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by Armando on 2010/07/16 17:39

It's nice to have meaningful + standard icons.

I think that redesigning a few icons in the IQ interface would help finding the different features/functions.

To not do useless work, focus should be put on those who would make the biggest difference.

The icons I find problematic because they're not very explicit are :

1) the various grid related icons.

I actually like them, but find that they're not explicit enough.

2) The various "manage... " (actually one of the previous grid icon, "manage grid", falls in that category.

3) Maybe the filter buttons?

Instead of letters + funnels for all of them, we could probably have something more iconic.

4 ) And there are no icons for those :

Notifications Pane

HTML pane

Here's an example of what I'd in mind for "manage grids" (

All "manage... " could have a wrench at the bottom.)

Not saying that this should be it (it's too small as it is etc., I'm not a designer or anything), but a wrench conveys the idea of configuration much better IMO.

Comments

Here's another version I did directly using the IQ icon editor...

Excellent idea ! I'm very bad at graphics design (and marketing for that matter...) so any help is more than welcomed !

Slightly different :

(Kinda like these... :) )

I kinda like these, too, Armando. They illustrate what they do. Way to go & thanks.

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

any help is more than welcomed !

[/quote]

I might try my hand at it.

A couple of questions:

1) The small icons appear to be 8 bit 16x16 gif files.Is that correct?

2) Customize>options>large icons changes some toolbars to large icons, but not on other toolbars. Is that by design?

3) Is the "large icons" the standard 24x24

4) should any redesigns include both sizes?

Multiple sizes would be wonderful... I can hardly make decent 16x16 icons, so anything larger would be absolutely disastrous...

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

any help is more than welcomed !

[/quote]

A few more observations about icons:

1) There are businesses out there that sell icons, and some that create custom icons. That might be something to consider.

Here's one such site (the English almost needs translating on it), that I found.

http://www.aha-soft.com/support.htm

2) I found that the toolbars that allow large icons, can also import .ico files, (and probably .png and .bmp) not just .gif files, and apparently can scale down larger icon sizes pretty well.

Here's my current experimental custom toolbar, using some free 24x24 icons, and the largest ico files I could find on my system:

That's rather an attractive toolbar!

[/quote]

Thanks Keith !

Are they truly 24x24 ? Just wondering because they look pretty pixelated here. Maybe it depends on the screen resolution.

[quote=Armando]

Are they truly 24x24 ? Just wondering because they look pretty pixelated here. Maybe it depends on the screen resolution.

[/quote]

They were 24x24, but using IQ "large icons". I think IQ may convert them to 16x16. I didn't try them on a "small" toolbar.

I'm running them on a 1650x1050 display and they look pretty good.

That ahasoft site has a lot of good, clean, colorful icons. I think it would help IQ tremendously to have some of them. Maybe we could all chip in a few bucks & Pierre would license them for IQ. What does anyone think about this?. If 13 people chipped in $10us, it would be a done deal.

I'm not sure what plans Pierre has but I think we should be careful here.

I find it hard to judge these icons cause they are so pixelly, but I will say that they would not mix well at all with the current set of icons.

The current icons are restrained, low-key - subdued you could almost say. These ones are colourful boisterous etc etc.

One could have complete sets of icons that could be exchanged, but it will be very difficult to have a cohesive set of icons with mix and match of icons from various sources.

[quote=Tom]

I'm not sure what plans Pierre has but I think we should be careful here.

I find it hard to judge these icons cause they are so pixelly, but I will say that they would not mix well at all with the current set of icons.

The current icons are restrained, low-key - subdued you could almost say. These ones are colourful boisterous etc etc.

One could have complete sets of icons that could be exchanged, but it will be very difficult to have a cohesive set of icons with mix and match of icons from various sources.

[/quote]

I completely agree.

Icons are of course a question of taste. But, taste aside, what we really need I believe is just a few clearer (semantically speaking) icons for a few features. The 24x24 ones would have to be drawn using the 16x16 ones. I don't think it's that difficult, it just takes time.

The ones are think are really unclear the grid are the grid related ones, the "New Window", the "manage .... " ones and maybe a few others I mentioned earlier.

This icon problem was first mentioned about 2 years ago on DC by Cranioscopical.

Are there any other icons that user find unclear ?

Some for the various filters :

1- hoisting

2- Alpha-Numeric

3- Dates

4- Columns

Where is the IQ icon editor?

[quote=Al]

Where is the IQ icon editor?

[/quote]

It's in the "customize" mode (toolbar right click). If you then right click on an icon on a toolbar, one of the options is "edit button image".

That launches a primitive icon editor.

Reference -- link to nonexistent node ID 161 --

Like you saw, I redesigned for fun the filter ones. But... It's clear to me that those are already pretty clear and maybe don't need to be redesigned.

Really, the ones that need to be different are the "manage" ones. And maybe a few others which aren't self explanatory.

What do you think ?

Pierre : 1- how to you edit/create your icons, 2- how do your save them 3- how can you load them in IQ's toolbar without editing them directly with the provided Icon editor?

I use IconFx, a nice free icon editor

Thanks ! And then how do you load them in the toolbars (Can the user do it or do you have to do it ?)

Best is to send it to me (or put them as attachment to a forum post). It is however possible to use the IQ icon editor. There is a load from file button for that.

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

Best is to send it to me (or put them as attachment to a forum post). It is however possible to use the IQ icon editor.

[/quote]

Okay, good to know.

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

There is a load from file button for that.

[/quote]

Ah! I missed it and finally found it.

For those wondering :

And this is what I had envisioneed for the different "manage..." icons. It's a draft, done with the IQ icon tool, and so the wrench isn't very consistent from one icon to the other

Anyhow, if you like the idea, we can work in that direction...

Opinions, anybody ?

Too complex a graphic for that size icon. otoh, I don't like being critical w/o offering a possible alternative so I will have to think about it now.

My guess is that my drawing skills just failed me.

This is the original inspiration :

I'm not sure what else could convey the "configuration/management" meaning. But there are surely other ways.

Some thoughts re icons:

I like your ideas Armando ! (I have no experience with icons myself)

this icon is really crisp - if we could combine your ideas with the simplicity of this icon I think we'd have something. Is it free to use, this icon?

My suggestion would be to keep your basic idea but remove all details - they cause the spanner detail to blur

Grids = default yellow background with shadows

Forms = Blue

Fields = White

I find it's rarely that icons are fully 'readable' simply from the image itself so may as well keep it simple - & colour-coded

I've downloaded the icon soft myself but not having much time this week esp.

[quote=Tom]

Some thoughts re icons:

I like your ideas Armando ! (I have no experience with icons myself)

this icon is really crisp - if we could combine your ideas with the simplicity of this icon I think we'd have something. Is it free to use, this icon?

My suggestion would be to keep your basic idea but remove all details - they cause the spanner detail to blur

Grids = default yellow background with shadows

Forms = Blue

Fields = White

I find it's rarely that icons are fully 'readable' simply from the image itself so may as well keep it simple - & colour-coded

I've downloaded the icon soft myself but not having much time this week esp.

[/quote]

Yes, the icon is free. So I guess I could just modify the colors, as you suggested. Will try tomorrow. But if somebody else has some other suggestions (as far as the actual icon, etc.) don't hesitate.

A lot of work also needs to be done in the 24 x 24 larger icons area...... there are just a few large icons and so the interface looks really weird when IQ is set to show the 24 x 24 icons.