Uri_Herrera wrote:Adding to that that the arrow is enough of a difference in the icon, but anyways, I had already changed the icon earlier today and moved the arrow to the top.



You can see the comparison with save as.

The arrow pointing toward the folder definitely makes more sense mataphorically ("Save" puts the data into a folder).
And to further increase the visual distinction from the "Open" icon, could the arrow perhaps be made bigger? In general, the add-ons in icons might be a bit too small especially for users with less-than-perfect eyesight or for hi-DPI screens.

However, that metaphor would apply to "Save as" as well (or actually even more, because "Save as" means telling the application where to store the data), so that would have to be chanced as well.

And for the lulz.

Nah, that would be an antiquated icon without the bonus of familiarity.

By the way, Jarosław mentioned only one posting. Here is the other one How designers think about ‘Save as…’. kdeuserk's bathtub is one of the winner of the contest.

I guess the reasoning to try and not use the floppy is because the floppy disk is an outdated storage media that newer generations probably don't even know that actually represented a physical object that was used as a storage device.

Using an inward arrow towards a storage media (and a folder or a stylized hard-drive seem like good representations) seems like a good metaphor to me but with the arrow pointing to the storage media.
The Open icon could use an arrow pointing out of the storage media and by having to icons using the same metaphor probably they would become easier to recognize.

I fully agree with Uri on "get away from the floppy" - seriously, I've been using one last time in pretty much 2002 - that's 12 years ago and kids being 6 at that time are now 18 and have probably never ever seen such thing.

However, I definitively object the folder. The typical scenario will be "New, Open, Save" what means I got a sheet, two folders and some dirt on my screen right now.

I'd very much prefer this filing/tray/deposition approach

As for "save as", I agree that if you've usually "save" and "save as" will rather be available in the menu only, it at best had no icon.
However, there are cases where a "save as" is "mandatory" (in a technical sense) eg. for online/temporary sources. Also if the user wants in on a toolbar and has icons (only) there, we still need an icon.
Following the deposition approach, "save as" could be the same but with a curved arrow, ie. ↴, instead of↓?

luebking wrote:I'd very much prefer this filing/tray/deposition approach

Metaphors coming from the Internet/Network era are against us. Google for "download icon"...

BTW 1: Downloading looks like fundamentally different action than saving. Moreover the latter in some apps means uploading (google for "upload icon" this time ). Hence we have opposite meaning assigned to the metaphor...

BTW 2: Just noticed in breeze: download.svg is identical to document-save.svg...

breeze now


example 1


example 2


new - open - open recent - import - export - save - save as - save all

I see bathtubs, clouds, folders and... floppies
Download typically has the arrow pointing down, upload has it upwards (surprise)

As for the metaphor: "download" means to save sth. (from the internet) on your disk. W/o a source indication (cloud...) that's actually just a "save" icon.
-qed :-P

Totally agree with luebking, artificial difference between download and save is not really needed and will lead to inconsistencies.

as jstaniek wrote document-download and download is the same icon.

Uri_Herrera wrote:

bjoernbalazs wrote:Uri, can you please explain a little bit about your motivation for replacing the floppy? All I get so far is: "I do not like it" - but I do not understand the reason behind it.

The icon (top one) was my champion for the icon contest Heiko mentions (overshadowed by the TONS of iOS copies, literally they were 1:1 copies of the iOS icon for save, and there were some good choices too, ironically similar to the ones in Breeze). If they had allowed bigger images this was the entire text.

I would like to challenge your reasoning. The Floppy for saving is not primary a floppy anymore. Just as saving is not necessarily anymore saving in the way it was years ago. Instead, the shape of a 3.5 inch floppy has become the symbol for securing your current data, which we call "saving". Just as a triangle pointing to the right means "play" - even though we are not using cassettes anymore, where this symbol actually made sense. I guess you wouldn't start to replace that by some spinning disc symbol, just because the action now is to play a CD and that happens to rotate.

Martin Graesslin put this in short words: “Floppy disks are like Jesus. They died to become the icon of saving.”

Summing it up: I think you are trying to replace the iconic manifestation of the term save (which happens to look like a Floppy) by something else. I fear, this cannot work (for a large and diverse user base).

Pretty much the same idea applies to cut, where I do not think removing the scissors would be any good. In a retro theme you could replace the scissors by a knife - just like your idea with the 5.25 inch floppy. But that won't work, because the iconic representation of scissors is by far the best representation of our common understanding of the cut action.

Now, to give my post a more positive and constructive spin
The icons for copy & paste do not work good in all icon themes. I would love to see your excellence and creativity to make these icons great. We would love to support your work by gathering feedback from the users, to really create something stunning!

I pushed the floppy.



But I'll be clear, I hate the icon and I hate that it is still in use.

I"m saddened by the reversion to the floppy icon, but I understand why Uri did it. I confess, that I'm entirely frustrated at our inability to allow some room to explore new metaphors here, even if we don't get it perfect initially.

Uri_Herrera wrote:I pushed the floppy.



But I'll be clear, I hate the icon and I hate that it is still in use.

... but, sorry to say, in contrast to all other suggestions I have seen I immediately know what it does. And in the end, that's what counts most, doesn't it?

I didn't particularly like the suggested folder-with-a-small-arrow as the save icon, but Uri's explanation made a lot of sense. If the arrow was more prominent and pointing into the folder, it would have been much better IMO.

Other than that, I really like the downloady save icon:



I don't really like the floppy icon either. As a legacy icon it's simply not abstract enough for my taste...

Wasn't there a usability test of save icons a while back? I thought I'd remember something there ...