New OOo Mimetype icons

[Ivan M]

Hi Art project members,

Please see Bernhard's email below to the UX list about the new
proposed OOo mimetype icons. I have to say that I'm dissappointed that
no one involved with these icons made an attempt to engage with the
art list about this.

Regards,
Ivan.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bernhard Dippold <bernhard@...>
Date: Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 10:45 AM
Subject: [ux-discuss] Change in OOo mimetype icons - known and
supported by the UX project?
To: discuss@...


Hi all,

as I'm not a regular customer of GULLFOSS, I needed someone else
(thanks, Volker) to point me to that blog
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/unified_odf_icons
where Lutz Hoeger writes about the change in mimetype icons probably
already decided (by whom?) for OOo 3.2.

The application colors will be given up and replaced by grey icons
symbolizing the different applications by symbols. A blue rectangle
with white "ODF" will be added to every icon.

The main reason for this change is to enforce public recognition of
ODF among different applications.

My problem from UX side:

- Is it reasonable to reduce the differences between all the different
ODF supporting programs?
Every program uses different algorithms, so the files will open a bit
differently in each of them. And depending of the features of each
program, the user will be or not be able to modify the file to more or
less extent.

- Will the new icons be different enough from each other to help the
user to open file he wants to?
In Windows I prefer the "detail" view in Explorer with 16x16px icons
for documents.(I don't know studies about the relative usage of the
different explorer views, if there are any...) In this size the color
of the icons are more important than their (very small) symbols.
Changing every color to grey reduces visual difference among the file types.

- My third point (not only related to UX): Why should we reduce the
strength of our (OpenOffice.org) visual design and recognition in
favor of ODF?
Every application changes the mimetype icons of the files it opens as
standard application. I want to know if a HTML file opens in IE,
Firefox, Opera or any other application when I open the file.

More details if necessary, but I think you get my point.

Best regards

Bernhard

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: discuss-unsubscribe@...
For additional commands, e-mail: discuss-help@...

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: art-unsubscribe@...
For additional commands, e-mail: art-help@...

[Pete Harlow]

Hi All,

At the Open Document Fellowship we tried a similar exercise years ago, and
IIRC did try and engage the OOo art team. The icons are used by a handful of
apps such as the Apache httpd, but were generally overlooked in the Sun and
corporate parts of the ODF landscape.

http://www.catnip.co.uk/opendocument/icons/

Regards,

Pete.


2009/9/21 Ivan M <i2initiatives@...>

> Hi Art project members,
>
> Please see Bernhard's email below to the UX list about the new
> proposed OOo mimetype icons. I have to say that I'm dissappointed that
> no one involved with these icons made an attempt to engage with the
> art list about this.
>
> Regards,
> Ivan.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Bernhard Dippold <bernhard@...>
> Date: Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 10:45 AM
> Subject: [ux-discuss] Change in OOo mimetype icons - known and
> supported by the UX project?
> To: discuss@...
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> as I'm not a regular customer of GULLFOSS, I needed someone else
> (thanks, Volker) to point me to that blog
> http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/unified_odf_icons
> where Lutz Hoeger writes about the change in mimetype icons probably
> already decided (by whom?) for OOo 3.2.
>
> The application colors will be given up and replaced by grey icons
> symbolizing the different applications by symbols. A blue rectangle
> with white "ODF" will be added to every icon.
>
> The main reason for this change is to enforce public recognition of
> ODF among different applications.
>
> My problem from UX side:
>
> - Is it reasonable to reduce the differences between all the different
> ODF supporting programs?
> Every program uses different algorithms, so the files will open a bit
> differently in each of them. And depending of the features of each
> program, the user will be or not be able to modify the file to more or
> less extent.
>
> - Will the new icons be different enough from each other to help the
> user to open file he wants to?
> In Windows I prefer the "detail" view in Explorer with 16x16px icons
> for documents.(I don't know studies about the relative usage of the
> different explorer views, if there are any...) In this size the color
> of the icons are more important than their (very small) symbols.
> Changing every color to grey reduces visual difference among the file
> types.
>
> - My third point (not only related to UX): Why should we reduce the
> strength of our (OpenOffice.org) visual design and recognition in
> favor of ODF?
> Every application changes the mimetype icons of the files it opens as
> standard application. I want to know if a HTML file opens in IE,
> Firefox, Opera or any other application when I open the file.
>
> More details if necessary, but I think you get my point.
>
> Best regards
>
> Bernhard
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: discuss-unsubscribe@...
> For additional commands, e-mail: discuss-help@...
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: art-unsubscribe@...
> For additional commands, e-mail: art-help@...
>
>

--
Peter Harlow

Catnip Controls - Manage the world from your Web Browser
http://www.catnip.co.uk/controls/

[Bernhard Dippold-2]

Hi Ivan, all,

Ivan M schrieb:
> Hi Art project members,
>
> Please see Bernhard's email below to the UX list about the new
> proposed OOo mimetype icons. I have to say that I'm disappointed that
> no one involved with these icons made an attempt to engage with the
> art list about this.

All official icons and graphics in OOo have been created by Stella
Schulze - and if the ODF icons have been designed for OOo, I'm quite
sure that she created the proposed icons too, even if she didn't include
them in the Visual Design website [1] or wiki [2].

Some time ago there have been no contact between the Sun Art team
(mainly Stella) and the OOo Art project, but during the last years the
contact increased - Stella shared her designs with the community, she is
subscribed to this list and provides us with specific information when
we ask her.

I have a dream of a general OOo Art project including the artists of our
main contributor and the other companies committed to OOo.

For the moment it's just a dream - but for the future...

Of course I'd like to see more involvement of the OOo Art Project in the
official OOo design. But we're on the right way - step for step.

Best regards

Bernhard

PS: At the moment I'm much more concerned about the impact of this
decision on our public recognition / visual design than on the new icons
design itself.

[1]: http://ui.openoffice.org/VisualDesign/OOo_brand.html
[2]: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Category:Visual_Design

>
> Regards,
> Ivan.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Bernhard Dippold<bernhard@...>
> Date: Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 10:45 AM
> Subject: [ux-discuss] Change in OOo mimetype icons - known and
> supported by the UX project?
> To: discuss@...
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> as I'm not a regular customer of GULLFOSS, I needed someone else
> (thanks, Volker) to point me to that blog
> http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/unified_odf_icons
> where Lutz Hoeger writes about the change in mimetype icons probably
> already decided (by whom?) for OOo 3.2.
>
> The application colors will be given up and replaced by grey icons
> symbolizing the different applications by symbols. A blue rectangle
> with white "ODF" will be added to every icon.
>
> The main reason for this change is to enforce public recognition of
> ODF among different applications.
>
> My problem from UX side:
>
> - Is it reasonable to reduce the differences between all the different
> ODF supporting programs?
> Every program uses different algorithms, so the files will open a bit
> differently in each of them. And depending of the features of each
> program, the user will be or not be able to modify the file to more or
> less extent.
>
> - Will the new icons be different enough from each other to help the
> user to open file he wants to?
> In Windows I prefer the "detail" view in Explorer with 16x16px icons
> for documents.(I don't know studies about the relative usage of the
> different explorer views, if there are any...) In this size the color
> of the icons are more important than their (very small) symbols.
> Changing every color to grey reduces visual difference among the file types.
>
> - My third point (not only related to UX): Why should we reduce the
> strength of our (OpenOffice.org) visual design and recognition in
> favor of ODF?
> Every application changes the mimetype icons of the files it opens as
> standard application. I want to know if a HTML file opens in IE,
> Firefox, Opera or any other application when I open the file.
>
> More details if necessary, but I think you get my point.
>
> Best regards
>
> Bernhard
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: discuss-unsubscribe@...
> For additional commands, e-mail: discuss-help@...
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: art-unsubscribe@...
> For additional commands, e-mail: art-help@...

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: art-unsubscribe@...
For additional commands, e-mail: art-help@...