The Save Icon
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- mantrakid0
We need a timeline icon.
- SteveJobs0
this may not be the best approach, but if you take what is literally happening during a save, be it to a database, hard drive, usb, solid state, whatever, it's ultimately just binary data being written to a particular address in 'memory'.
and since this is a particularly complex abstraction, perhaps a symbol portraying writing would make sense. the vertically oriented background rectangle can serve as a document, server, or tablet, and inside are lines indicating progress of the write (save) action, with a writing tool placed below and positioned at the next line.
- i_monk0
Looking at my browser, the only literal icon is a home representing home page. "Back" and "Forward" are simple arrows, without any attempt to show previous web pages overlapping behind them. Reload is a partial loop with an arrow. Cancel is an X. Similarly on my phone, the menu button is two lines in a box and the back/cancel button is a hooked arrow. Why should save be represented by a picture of a thing, and not a simple symbol?
- doesnotexist0
maybe save will become something automatic and won't need a symbol anymore. i never find myself looking for a save icon, but i'm constantly pushing +S
- SteveJobs0
honestly, i don't care either way. but i *do* find it to be an interesting discussion, nonetheless, and wanted to hear the thoughts of designers on the topic as I'm not one.
my point was that if any symbol were to be used that it was not that of any recognizable storage medium, as none can claim to be the defacto and none are immune from obsoletion.
seems the consensus is just leave it the way it is.
- Continuity0
If the primary reason for stopping the use of the 3.5 floppy as a symbol for saving something is the fact the hardware is no longer used, I'm not entirely sure it's _that_ strong an argument, at least not now.
Reason I think that is that there is now a whole generation of people who have grown probably not using that storage medium at all, yet it doesn't impair their interpretation of the symbol, nor their ability to use a computer in the slightest.
Ten, twenty years from now? Yeah, maybe it would be time to revisit it, but then again, maybe not. How many of us have ever used a compass regularly in our daily lives? Few, I reckon, but we still all know its association with cartography and finding our way around.
Maybe the floppy has entered collective memory in the same way other old technologies have, and we will continue to identify with it years from now in this way.
- waterhouse0
More importantly, don't you think it's time we find a new name for television "channels?" I mean, we're no longer tapping in to airwaves for motion content. So come everyone, let's brainstorm to find something better...
"Content sites?"
"Digi-feeds?"Personally, I'd really like to make a grassroots push for "Cable codes."
- channels still applies as they are pathways through which something flows, like a rivermonospaced
- unless you're referring to on-demand content, in which case they don't use channels anywaymonospaced
- My sophomoric attempt at taking a few steps back.waterhouse
- omg0
- hellrod0
Pretty soon we will all be saving to the cloud, and there's an icon for that already.
- Projectile0
"Dad, why does the save button always have that funny symbol on it?"
"Because, son, that was the main way to save something when the technology was invented"
"So why don't the update it to have a picture of an SSD?"
"Because, son, SSD's are completely obsolete. I'm just too fucking cheap to get you a real computer with an organic memory cell."
It's the first universally understood symbol, so doesn't need to change and if it does it'll always be confusing. Like when you watch an old movie and they whip out an old Nokia and you can't help but think of how old it is and your mind wanders from the plot.
- yeah, opting for a more recent storage medium obviously doesn't solve anything.SteveJobs
- stewdio0
- And the comments ring true... baseball plates are not a universal iconic image.hellrod
- Shhhh! Every time we enable US imperialism the government gives us a cookie.stewdio
- Crappest idea ever. Even for the one country that knows what it is trying to be.MrT
- safe and save are two totally different things... like have and ofAmicus
- baseball plates are the EVEN MORE retarded than floppy disksanimatedgif
- i_monk0
Maybe this could be a QBN project. Someone start a blog/kickstarter/twitter/tumblr... page.