Comments on: It’s time to update the ‘Save’ icon http://www.powersourcestudios.net/blog/itstimetoupdatethesaveicon Now is not the Rhyme is the blog for which Miles Benson posts life anecdotes and site updates for his business Power Source Studios. Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:27:36 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Miles Benson http://www.powersourcestudios.net/blog/itstimetoupdatethesaveicon/comment-page-1#comment-3514 Miles Benson Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:25:19 +0000 http://www.powersourcestudios.net/blog/?p=395#comment-3514 A lot of people it seems want to see just a picture of a hard-drive. Which I'm not sure can work either since most hard-drives look different. It really is vexing to think that it's so difficult to come up with an alternative to this icon. A friend of mine even pointed out that some operating systems still use an hourglass to denote passing time. Which is kind of funny when you think about it. But I suppose figuring out how to represent time is easier than figuring out how to represent recording data to a circuit board. Like you said, how is possible that the floppy disk is so iconic that we can't think of another way of representing that action? I like your interpretation in regards to the Egyptian bird representation. I think that's pretty spot on to relate it to the disk. A lot of people it seems want to see just a picture of a hard-drive. Which I’m not sure can work either since most hard-drives look different. It really is vexing to think that it’s so difficult to come up with an alternative to this icon.

A friend of mine even pointed out that some operating systems still use an hourglass to denote passing time. Which is kind of funny when you think about it. But I suppose figuring out how to represent time is easier than figuring out how to represent recording data to a circuit board. Like you said, how is possible that the floppy disk is so iconic that we can’t think of another way of representing that action?

I like your interpretation in regards to the Egyptian bird representation. I think that’s pretty spot on to relate it to the disk.

]]> By: timmy http://www.powersourcestudios.net/blog/itstimetoupdatethesaveicon/comment-page-1#comment-3513 timmy Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:35:54 +0000 http://www.powersourcestudios.net/blog/?p=395#comment-3513 Does it speak to how powerful the floppy disk icon is, that I can't even begin to think of something that could represent the concept of recording an electronic copy of a file that is stored on a computer's hard drive? The lifesaver denotes "save," but it doesn't connote the type of saving that's going on (rescuing, as opposed to recording a file.) I think the closest thing would be like, a guy stuffing dollar bills into a safe, or a safe itself. But that's still only loosely connected to the concept. Does a picture of a safe, or a lifesaver, do what a floppy disk does better than a floppy disk? At least the disk is tangentially related to storing electronic copies. I see this going the route of like, Egyptian hierolglyphics. At some point, the little bird symbol probably meant something closely approximating "bird." But eventually, it became a stand-in in the alphabet for a completely non-literal concept. Same with the disk. Does it speak to how powerful the floppy disk icon is, that I can’t even begin to think of something that could represent the concept of recording an electronic copy of a file that is stored on a computer’s hard drive? The lifesaver denotes “save,” but it doesn’t connote the type of saving that’s going on (rescuing, as opposed to recording a file.) I think the closest thing would be like, a guy stuffing dollar bills into a safe, or a safe itself. But that’s still only loosely connected to the concept. Does a picture of a safe, or a lifesaver, do what a floppy disk does better than a floppy disk? At least the disk is tangentially related to storing electronic copies.

I see this going the route of like, Egyptian hierolglyphics. At some point, the little bird symbol probably meant something closely approximating “bird.” But eventually, it became a stand-in in the alphabet for a completely non-literal concept. Same with the disk.

]]>