Office 2010 leaked beta icons: huh? | The Coffeehouse

contextfree

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/another-office-2010-mondo-build-leaked-into-the-wild.ars

How could anyone think using the initial of your application as the signature element in the icons of a suite of which three of your applications have the same initial (and another two -- both included in a standard SKU! -- would if you didn't cheat by arbitrarily using an inner capital for one of them) is a good idea? Perplexed

contextfree

OK, on second thought I guess it does kinda make sense in the W7 taskbar context, since instant icon recognition becomes more important + you get a larger icon to work with, so you'll get both the letter and picture to jog your memory.

But I still wonder about the benefit of pseudo-consistency. The distinctly styled letters in the old Word and OneNote icons served as mnemonics without raising any unmeetable expectations of consistency across Office applications.

Ion Todirel
buuu

that looks very fake and cheap, I think the Office team would never do anything like that

Jon Monreal

Reminds me of Adobe's CS3 icons, although I like Adobe's icons better (even if they are really plain).

Ion Todirel
buuu

In reply to Jon Monreal

#Sep 12th @ 6:13 PM

I don't, I think an actual icon/logo is easier to remember than some letters

Jon Monreal

In reply to Ion Todirel

#Sep 12th @ 6:25 PM

Sorry if that statement was confusing: I wasn't saying Adobe's new icons are better than their old ones, but instead that Adobe's new icons are better than these supposed ones for Office. At least those have some style and contain two letters, which makes things better if you already know the names of the products you work with.

The only good thing is the color consistency with Office from version to version, which gives another way to quickly identify which program is which. Reminds me of the way the Visual Studio Express Editions have had colors associated with them (such as green for C#).

MasterPie
I'm white because I smelt an onion

This is what they look like in full apparently:

Source: http://www.jcxp.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=35892&hl=

sushovande
Smiley Face Sharp

In reply to MasterPie

#Sep 12th @ 8:14 PM

I like them.. despite the potential for confusion. Smiley

Blue Ink
C you

Hmm... I don't think these will be the final icons (at least the small ones shown in the OP). The "P" of Project is slightly off, and even if they fixed that they would end up with three identical icons in different colors.

With color blindness rated between 7 and 10% of the male population, this would be an incredibly bad move.

SharePoint Guy
Bring it on!

I'm running the 2010 Technical Preview and those icons are not even close to what I have.

contextfree

In reply to SharePoint Guy

#Sep 12th @ 10:17 PM

Yes, the Technical Preview is not yet a beta and is an official testing release, not a leak. This is apparently newer.

I actually do like the funky font they used, though.

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

Haha, how utterly awful. How on earth am I going to tell which P on my taskbar is Publisher? Everytime you think Microsoft is on a roll with something, they come up with some way to screw it up. Assuming this is real and final, of course. They did cheat by using an inner capital for one of them, by the way: OneNote has an N icon instead of an O icon like Outlook.

Those full size icons are actually pretty nice... or at least the would be if my taskbar was 300 pixels high. Why are all of them letters except for Sharepoint Designer?

Dodo
I'm your creativity creator™ :)

In reply to Bas

#Sep 13th @ 3:11 AM

The color? PowerPoint is red, Project is green and Publisher is turquoise. That might be a problem if you're color blind, though.

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

In reply to Dodo

#Sep 13th @ 3:23 AM

Wait, which one was green again? Quick, without looking back! Exactly.

Also, Excel is also green. And Access is also red. So now I have to remember some sort of cross-referencing table with colors and initials to figure out which icon is which. That's so much better than actual distinct icons.

Jon Monreal

In reply to Bas

#Sep 13th @ 3:34 AM

For the larger new icons, the same logic could be applied to the old Office icons, as both use colors and graphics (the new ones just add a letter). Actually, I think that a good idea might be to somehow use a smaller icon without the letter more like the current ones in the Start Menu and where applicable and reserve these ones with the letter and the graphics for the Windows 7 taskbar. I would have to agree, however, that the letter and nothing more is not better than just a graphic, especially when it is easy to associate that graphic with a program.

exoteric
I : Next<I>

In reply to MasterPie

#Sep 12th @ 8:14 PM

Like them all, except the Sharepoint Designer icon. Adobe does the same for its application suite, except it uses two letters (Fl for flash, for example).

exoteric
I : Next<I>

In reply to Ion Todirel

#Sep 12th @ 6:04 PM

*Icon designers scrambling to remake all icons*

jamie

seems obvious. some one saw adobes "suite" icons - and decided they needed letters too.

doesnt work. and why isnt excell an E - to have it both ways?

ps - i dont like the adobe ones - but at least they came up with the idea (good or bad)

exoteric
I : Next<I>

In reply to jamie

#Sep 13th @ 6:33 PM

Because it's X as in Ex, Jamie Smiley

Plus it's one of the prettiest letters in the alphabet

jamie

In reply to exoteric

#Sep 14th @ 12:03 AM

haha - remember when ms was the one coming up with ideas? I DO!

Simo
With me it's a full-time job.

Looking at the Start menu screenshots I'm thinking the descriptive term 'Microsoft' is looking a little over used. I mean some stuff has three levels of nested 'Microsoft...' branding.

There's promoting your brand and there's taking your name and shoving it deep down your customer's throats.

Ion Todirel
buuu

In reply to Simo

#Sep 16th @ 9:40 PM

technically that is just a folder Smiley

AndyC

In reply to Ion Todirel

#Sep 16th @ 10:01 PM

Maybe, but it does go against what the Start menu UI guide entry says (or at least used to say) that the folder should be named for the company and then individual product icons should just be the product name and not company + product name.