Hold a contest to design new dreamwidth icons.

[garden_hoe21]

Title:
Hold a contest to design new dreamwidth icons.

Area:
icons

Summary:
Hold a contest to design a more "iconic" Dreamwidth userhead and community icon. Gift the winner with a seed account or DW points.

Description:
So for my comm, I had been using the red swirl icon in my promotional blurb. It wasn't until somebody informed me about it that I found out the red swirl is supposed to be just for official DW staff and communities.

I had seen the green "earth" comm icon before, but to me that just symbolizes "world wide web," so I hadn't realized it was a DW thing. It doesn't "say" DW, to me, especially if I see it used on Livejournal where people don't know the DW icons. The red DW swirl is an iconic image that really represents the site for me.

Along the same vein, the grey userhead icon could possibly use something more iconic as well. Grey says "generic" to me, not Dreamwidth.

Holding a redesign contest would make use of the awesome talent your users have if you can't hire a designer. You could make it clear that the userheads have to be non-racialized and non-gendered.

Poll #8935 Hold a contest to design new dreamwidth icons.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 91

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
17 (18.7%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
3 (3.3%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
42 (46.2%)

(I have no opinion)
25 (27.5%)

(Other: please comment)
4 (4.4%)

Comments

[majorshipper]

Long before I got what DW was, I'd see the icons on LJ or AO3 and I didn't get what service it was supposed to be promoting. The ones used now are very, very generic, to me, and actually don't feel very iconic(memorable) at all, but in fact more like the user-created icons over on LJ to replace its defaults via css. I actual confused them more than once(particularly the generic grey user-icon) with something created by one of the popular user-icon creators on LJ. Something more iconic, I think, would help raise awareness of DW more than just a generic grey userhead would. And, of course, if it's user-created via an official competition, it would only add to DW's status as a place where the users actually can participate in what happens (not that it needs the help, but, hey, awareness if a good thing, yeah?).

*shrugs* My two cents.

(redone for spelling/clarity!fail)

[erik]

I don't think the current icons suck, but I'd be happy to see better ones. I'd really like to see more/better choices for mood themes. Maybe there should be a general call to the community for more and/or better iconography.

[justhuman]

I love the swirl and don't mind (but don't love) the gray userhead. I think a contest to design new ones could be cool, but I think it should be optional designs, not necessarily replacement designs.

[stormy]

I voted "I have no opinion" simply because while they could use just a graphical update (making the swirl clearer in most cases), I've grown used to them. A lot of times, I prefer simplicity in userheads and they go with a lot of different layouts without customization because they're so simple. They're also not offensive by assuming a gender binary design. I disliked Livejournal's decision to implement a dozen special/custom style userheads.

In my humble opinion, at most, the admin staff could just use a touch up on their icons, but I'm not opposed to the idea that they might roll out with new icons in the future if they really want to.

[opusculus]

First I voted no, then I voted yes, then I gave up and changed it to other, because I am really split on this.

I don't love DW's icons, but I think in general they serve their basic purpose within the site, and the fact that they are as bland as they are makes them more integrated into how the user chooses to use the site better than a more branded icon. I don't think it would bother me to see a little bright red swirly icon in all the posts on my flist if I had a very neutral scheme of browns or something, but it would be a much stronger statement to me, and I don't know if I like that.

But I can also see the appeal of it for people who are checking out DW, and I think that a redesign would almost inevitably be more memorable to someone linking from another site. And that's not a bad thing, really. I do agree that DW's icons are a little too bland, and I do remember finding the earth icon for communities basically meaningless and kind of a poor choice when I first moved to DW.

So I don't really know. I could make a coherent vote if I knew what the user icons we were choosing from would be, and I'm not absolutely against it, but... I would rather have a bland and boring icon than a brightly done icon that isn't really excellently done. Most site icons I see just strike me as kind of uglily distinctive, and that's not really what I want out of DW. The current swirl is decent, but it's just a little blocky on the right side and that's the kind of thing that bugs me when it's supposed to be a distinctive logo thing.

So I guess it comes down to me that yes, I don't love DW's current icons and think they could stand to be improved, but I really don't want something worse.

[azurelunatic]

I think it's worth noting that the DW site icons were in fact mostly chosen from a set of freely available icons (the 'Silk' icon set), with a very few exceptions, so I am not at all surprised when people find them bland.

[azurelunatic]

I would be all right with something a little more customized and iconic, but I have some reservations.

Changing icons on people shouldn't be done lightly. Changing up the sitewide look of things is a major thing and affects basically everybody no matter what's being changed. Changing up the sitewide look of a meaningful icon should be considered more than just a cosmetic change, because people will have to re-learn that the new appearance of the icon goes with the old meaning.

I personally know at least one person who does not "read" images well, and changing up something like the userheads or the community profile icon would be substantially distressing to them. That's enough to make me say no unless the replacements were really awesome.

So I would say no to a contest where the best entry was guaranteed to be the new thing. If there were a contest where the best entry had a chance to be the new thing, but if the owners and users still didn't think it was quite the thing, the old icons would stay, I'd be for that. But that strikes me as a disappointing way to run a contest.

[amadi]

I really dislike the idea of making multiple userheads available for regular users. Because they're so small, trying to decipher "does this userhead signify something (like staff member) or is it just decorative" is really a pain in the butt. I understand that people enjoy personalizing to the nth degree, but userheads aren't decorative, they're informative, and if there's going to be a change, I strongly believe that it needs to be universal.

I'm neutral about the globe and swirl, but I'm pretty vehement about the userheads.

[zing_och]

I like the swirl for official stuff: it makes it stand out on my reading page.

I've gotten used to the grey userhead, but I can see that it is rather bland. What I really don't like are the custom userheads LJ has - they tend to confuse me (worse on LJ because there the staff userheads are so similar). I'd want to keep at least an option to have a "generic" userhead for journals, whatever that might be.

What's most important to me: comms, official journals and personal journals should stay easily recognizable. (I don't read much on LJ anymore, so I hadn't thought about it, but DW icons should be sufficiently different from the LJ ones, too, to avoid confusion.)

[dancing_serpent]

I actually really like the globe for communities. Same goes for the swirl for official journals/comms - makes it stand out and tells me right away that this post is something I probably should pay attention to.

I wasn't all that happy about the grey userhead at first, but now I rather like that one, too. It's neutral enough not to be offending and makes the globe and swirl stand out more.

[erik]

I agree with the feeling that having a multitude of custom/choosable userheads is a bad thing. It's an icon. the userpic is the appropriate place to express your individuality.

[azurelunatic]

Unless I'm reading it very wrong, this suggestion is in fact about changing the userheads/community icons sitewide, not for customizable ones.

[garden_hoe21]

Yes, you're right. I don't know where the idea of multiple userheads came from :-/

[ninetydegrees]

+1

[turlough]

Yeah, this. It's why I'm voting Other.

[aedifica]

Voting no because I do like the current userhead, globe, and swirl.

[havocthecat]

Too many bright colors make my migraines worse. I like the gray.

[cesy]

So I would say no to a contest where the best entry was guaranteed to be the new thing. If there were a contest where the best entry had a chance to be the new thing, but if the owners and users still didn't think it was quite the thing, the old icons would stay, I'd be for that. But that strikes me as a disappointing way to run a contest.

+1

[cesy]

Yes, I would love a similar challenge for people to create more moodthemes, or a way to submit them (e.g. via dreamscapes) and get points for them.

[montuos]

+1

azurelunatic's final paragraph in particular is what tips me from "no opinion" to "no".

I don't see a problem with "generic"; compared to staff and official communities, the rest of us are generic. The grey userhead and the community icon are bland and inoffensive. I don't love them, I don't hate them, and bland and inoffensive have their place — but I oppose change merely for the sake of change.

If there were a less nebulous proposal at hand ("ZOMG look at these AWESOME icons we could use instead!") I might feel differently, but I can't bring myself to vote in favor of something that doesn't even exist yet that doesn't have any certainty of suiting my or anyone else's preferences once it does exist.

[arethinn]

Perhaps they were thinking that these newly designed ones would be available alongside as a choice, rather than replacing what we currently have.

[arethinn]

I like the swirl but wish it was easier to "read" on admin userheads. It took me a long time to parse that picture as being "DW swirl around a userhead's shoulders". I would be for admins using just the swirl alone, but I could see how that could be perceived as separating - making them seem very different, top-down, and not just a privileged class of user. I dunno there. eta: duh, and that's already in use for official DW communities. *headsmack*

I do agree that the grey seems generic and the globe says "www" rather than DW community, but... well I guess this is why I'm not a designer, lol. FWIW I think LJ and especially IJ struggle with good community icons, too; I have learned to recognize them both but I find them very arbitrary and not connected to the concept they're meant to express (which a userhead, grey or not, at least does for an individual user).

Anyway, I would definitely be interested in seeing designs for new options, although I do sympathize with the above comment that "it would have to be just for a chance to be a new icon, and yet that seems like not that encouraging a way to run a contest." In the end I voted yes though.

[just_your_problem]

Sorry, I rather like them so I voted no. I actually disliked LJ's custom user heads as well as the default one. While a sprucing up is rarely a bad thing, I don't see a reason to outright change them.

[garden_hoe21]

How would you define "sprucing up" as opposed to changing?