I was typing an artist bio for a group my friend Melanie Tjoeng is starting called Commune Collect, when I realized the "save" icon for Word 2004 is an image of an old floppy disc...
"How curious," I thought. "I am barely old enough to remember the floppy disc and I'm 26. I wonder what kids think that grey brick save icon is trying to be?"
This icon has literally zero contextual relevance to a school age kid's repertoire of images. Without some prior knowledge of its place in history as a technology once used to store data, the floppy disc icon offers no visual cues as to what it is or does. I know I'm not the first to realize this. I'm sure the contemporary lack of a universally recognized symbol for data storage is the plight of every Word software programmer. And on the far off chance one of them views this or any other blog addressing the issue, it will surely be salt in the wound. whoops.
So whats the solution for when there are no people to explain what a floppy disc was? Maybe by then we wont have to click "save." Maybe our brains will think it, and it will be so. But in this mental clicking process will the brain picture the icon of the floppy disc or merely picture the word "save" to initiate the command? I kind of hope its the floppy disc.
Ha! I ran across this post while looking for ideas for an alternatie "save" icon. I've discussed this with interaction designers before. I have yet to see a better alternative. I agree that it is weird but this disconnect is not uncommon. When was the last time you saw a telephone receiver that looked anything like the icon so prominently used on cell phones? People don't use wooden pencils much anymore but they are almost exclusively used to symbolize "edit". The floppy disc will become more and more abstract as a symbol for "save" and the oddest thing about it will be that we remember what its origins were.
ReplyDeleteoh the wonderful world of obsolete iconography. It will be forever a burden.
ReplyDelete