icons used in transmogrified

[kaigou]

Title:
icons used in transmogrified

Area:
icons, usability

Summary:
The icon used for "filtered post" in transmog style is identical to the icon traditionally used to indicate "protected from viruses": a shield.

Description:
Could we possibly get that "filtered" icon* changed to something more intuitive? Or at least to something less misleading?

I know the notion of "filter" is a hard one to create an intuitive icon for, but honestly, the one being used doesn't make me think "filter"; it's too much like the MacAfee and DiskWarrior styled shield icon/badges. Every time I see a post with that on it, my first reaction is, "how the hell did a virus get into my post?" as though the icon is trying to alert me that my post has been cleaned. I see the icon nearly daily, yet it's still losing its uphill battle against nearly a decade of "shield = VIRUS!!" reinforcement. 

ETA: icon in question is

Other applications using a variation on the shield-shape: Norton Antivirus, Windows Network Security, eScan Virus Check, Windows Anti-Virus Software, Hotspot Shield, Symantec Antivirus, A-Squared Anti-Malware, Spy Sweeper, Windows Updater (tray icon), Ewido Anti-Spyware, AVG Anti-Spyware, Anti-Malware 2009, Sophos Anti-Virus, USB Disk Security, Orbasoft ApS [...and more but I got tired of typing.]

UPDATE 8/21: proposed icon on the boards (see comments) is by Turlough, using two silk icons together:

From a usability perspective, "filter" is one of the hardest concepts to iconify, because it's not a concrete thing. (I've even seen "flour sifter" used as "filter"-icon, and how many people still know what that is?) The difficulty is perfectly illustrated by the fact that DW's "filter" icon isn't even "filter"-like, but instead is trying to riff off the idea of "shielded".

In a new application, we can and do learn new icon-meanings, which may complicate the learning curve but afterwards we're savvy. In this case, though, DW is trying to pre-empt an icon that has a well-established meaning. That makes for some major cognitive dissonance. I'd say I'm pretty savvy usually, but I keep stumbling when I check the settings after posting. If it's late, or my eyes are tired, a few times I've even automatically clicked on the little shield, nervously expecting a message to pop up from DW about how I just got stopped from sending the I-love-you-virus to everyone on my flist. Or something equally horrendous.

Either come up with an icon that does relate to the concept of "filter" (good luck, because it is hard) OR shift the semantics to a word that can be illustrated more easily (much as 'shielded' -> 'protected' does) and transition in a new/unfamiliar icon to go with it.

* I have no idea whether the icon is consistent in all styles; I'm only familiar with transmog to any degree.

Poll #1056 icons used in transmogrified

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
19 (38.0%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
12 (24.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
10 (20.0%)

(I have no opinion)
9 (18.0%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[triadruid]

Can you link to the icon in question? I'm not sure I'm thinking of what you're thinking.. what LJ represents as or ?

[forthwritten]

I'm pretty sure it's

[ninetydegrees]

Just a note: this icon is not specific to Transmogrified. It's the default icon used throughout the site (see http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=133).

In this case, though, DW is trying to pre-empt an icon that has a well-established meaning.

Not well-established to me. I've never used the software you mention. Just saying; I'm actually using my own icons.

[zvi]

I won't vote for a don't use this icon proposal, unless the icon is offensive in some way. I need an actual alternate proposal to evaluate, to see whether or not the new proposed icon seems clearer.

DW is using silk icons, but [I am not an owner] might be willing to snag a more appropriate icon from a different icon set, so long as the icon set was available for free for commercial use.

[kaigou]

Honestly, I've seen the attempts different developers have made at a "filter" icon, and it's very hard. None of them ever really seem to universally come back with "oh, yeah, that's a filter," which is why I suggested that perhaps the semantics of "filter" be adjusted, as well. That might make it easier to pick from among the silk icons or similar, to find something a bit less confusing.

[kaigou]

Err, I meant "come back with this" in context of "when doing user testing for icons and design, etc".

[kerravonsen]

Fair enough; but I agree with the original poster that the shield is confusing. I prefer the icons that LJ uses for this purpose; the padlock and the double-lock of a different colour.

[snakeling]

What about a funnel icon? Or maybe a funnel + padlock?

[phoenixsong]

While I don't have the "VIRUS!" reaction kaigou has, I do think it's not the most intuitive icon I've ever seen.

I know you're not the one to make the decision, but looking at the full set, I like bullet_key or group_key as alternates.

[kyrielle]

Agreed, I find it confusing for the same reason. (I also find a bell for 'track this' completely non-intuitive, but at least it's so bizarre that I don't interpret it as anything else, I just go 'WTF?' periodically. The shield is easily confused with another meaning that isn't intended, the bell is just...really really random.)

[kaigou]

at least it's so bizarre that I don't interpret it as anything else, I just go 'WTF?' periodically

hah, it's good to hear I'm not the only one. That's the trick with iconage: either you pick something so clearly established for the purpose (like the 'printer' icon we're all used to seeing by now) or you pick something so off-the-wall that you can create a connection from scratch.

[kaigou]

Suggestion a friend of mine just made: using an icon that shows a clump of people-shapes + a lock, to indicate a locked set of friends. Which I'm thinking might be far more intuitive, in general, because it's an illustration of the basic concept: "locked except to certain readers".

[cesy]

I actually quite like the current icon, and I find it helps to be easily distinguishable from the standard access-locked icon.

[yvi]

I like it as well. Wasn't the option called 'protected' once upon a time?

[azurelunatic]

I also associate shields with virus protection. Critical software updates, too.

Before LJ had their current cunning little double-lock (I love that thing; it's something I'd consider commissioning and wearing, even though I don't use the feature very much) or tags, I wanted to have a strong symbolic association for a filtered entry, so I borrowed from the UML class diagram visibility symbol for "protected" and have been marking filtered entries (or unfiltered in some cases where it's content that looks like it might deserve a filter) with the subject line including "# = [filter description]". Thus, an entry locked to my Support/volunteer-affiliated friends might have the subject "Another day, another person who has mistaken tech support for the contact-a-reporter department! ( # = spr0t )"

[kaigou]

Which we do have, of a sort, with posts being labeled what filters are in use for a post -- something I think is awesome, being someone with about eight or nine filters at any given time, and the tendency to overlap them when it suits me. That whole labeling thing is definitely nifty. Plus easier on the eyeballs if you need/prefer a larger font -- since the icons don't resize.

[ldybastet]

That's a shield? And here I've been seeing that symbol as a Kamen Rider head the whole time. ;) Ooops.

I guess I sort of like LJs double lock symbol for the custom filter. But it's hard to think of something that makes you think "filter" instantly. Maybe "group" would be an easier image to go for? It *is* a group of people we lock the post to after all.

[kaigou]

(Since I'm still awake...)

Group icons I've got on hand (all CCL, IIRC). From the mundane to the "hey, at least it would stand out as so totally WTF you'll never again associate it with anything BUT filtered posts!"

[zooey_glass]

I see the shield and think 'protected', which fits the idea that the post is seen only by a certain group, for me.

[turlough]

I don't have an opinion on this because I use my own selection of icons from the Silk set. There isn't really one that really fits the concept of filtered entries in this set though so I ended up making a custom made one that looked pretty much like LJ's filter icon:

[kaigou]

oh, but it's a nice mix, because it's saying it's a tagged kind of locked, which does work for what a filter does (instead of illustrating filter, that is). That definitely works for me!

Regardless of what DW chooses to do, would you mind if I used your icon-adaptation, myself?

[kate_nepveu]

Oh I like that a _lot_.

*votes*

[kyrielle]

I like turlough's icon.

[inarticulate]

I like the icon in question and, while turlough's is nice, it's way too close to LJ's for my comfort.

[kaigou]

I like it better than LJ's, because LJ's never made sense to me -- it looked like a pile of locks (okay, so it is, but yeah), and I kept thinking: what was wrong with just having a single lock? What's with this multiple lock stuff? Is my post extra-extra-locked now?

At least the tag makes some kind of intuitive sense, that the lock itself has been tagged in some way, just like filtering basically locks the post but does so via a tagging-method (tag: group1, tag: bestfriends, etc).

Which means to my mind, it's close enough to LJ's style that it is somewhat familiar/comfortable to folks being introduced to DW, but it's just far enough away (and helps that it's silk icons, unlike LJ) that it's stylistically different, plus being more intuitive. That really helps in the learning curve, when similarity can be helpful so long as the basic intention is roughly the same -- like going from shift-on-the-column to shift-on-the-floor in a car. Not quite exactly but close enough you're halfway there in learning it.

[trinity_clare]

+1 for turlough's icon. The shield is probably the least intuitive icon on the site. (The next least intuitive is the bell, but only because I got so used to calling it the stalkerpin on LJ.)