New icons nice, but a bit too subtle perhaps?

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Jen,

I like the new forum icons. But I'm wondering if the greenish arrow in this one (and others with arrows):

could be made a little bolder. It kinda gets lost in the gray background with the cross-hatches and is easy to miss with a glance at the screen. You know, "form following function" and all that Bauhaus stuff -- maybe something more like this?

Thanks,
-Phil

P.S. If you feel beleaguered by meddling art critics, please take comfort in knowing that you're not the first:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUCe5OaKldM&t=6m37s

Jen J.

Phil,

I am a fan of subtlety. I don't always do it well, but I'm learning. I shall consider your ideas when I eventually revisit the icon set in the future. We are currently working on some very important (and very exciting) projects here in the office that require much of my attention. For now, the new icons work, and they are not the super boring default vBulletin set, so we're good to go. But please do keep the color commentary coming!

Cheers, Jen J.

W9GFO

I was wondering if we would be hearing from Phil about the icon change, I didn't notice until just now that he had made a post about it. As usual, I mostly agree with him. I'll go a step further and say that I simply do not like the new icons. My eyes are getting old and it is much easier for me to tell at a glance what the icons mean if they are simple and colorful. The way they are now, subtle with too many lines, makes me a little frustrated each time I see them. I strongly prefer the old icon with the image of a single envelope over the new one with the image of three pieces of paper.

The attentions directed at improving the forums is appreciated.

Rich H

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Rich,

Wait a minute! I'm older than you, and I wasn't ready to play the age card!

But, yes, I guess the theme of both our comments is that usability imposes its own design constraints, to which attention must be paid, but within which there is still plenty of room for artistic expression. And, despite my young age [cough! cough!], my early-morning and late-night bleary-eyed forum surfing does require more of a visual knife-stab to elicit recognition. (That does not mean that I fall under ADA guidelines, however! )

-Phil