Re: Icon Love (long-ish)

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

Alex Larsson wrote:

> Why didn't anyone comment on my suggestion to use 1->9 and 9->1 instead.
> It seems that this would solve the issue for everyone.

Another alternative I've seen that implies neither alphabetical or
numerical sort is to use an icon showing three shapes in
ascending/descending size, e.g:

. o O   for "ascending sort", and
----->

O o .   for "descending sort"
<----

(The arrow is necessary for locales where people don't interpret things
naturally from left to right.)

One of the Sun HCI guys has just recommended reading "Global Interface
Design:  A Guide to Designing International User Interfaces", by Tony
Fernandez.  Apparently it "has a lot about icon issues, and some of them
will raise the hair on your neck", but unfortunately it's now out of
print.  (Somebody's selling a copy on Amazon's zShops if you're quick,
though...)

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems