Yet another App Icon comment...

[smadell]

As some have said, I don't much care whether the new icon or the old icon is used. It is, after all, just an icon. However, I've noticed that the new icon (actually, the new icons for ALL the new beta versions) do not have any indication that the app is the Beta! On the old icons, the orange Beta symbol was visible and was a good indicator.

This is an issue because I always keep the MAS version of the programs and the BETA version of the programs on my Dock, using them both. As it stands now, there doesn't seem to be any way that we will be able to tell the difference.

[carl123]

Since this is the first time most of us have seen the new icons having the orange beta symbol on top of it would have obscured some of the design and it would have been more difficult to give accurate feedback on the new icons.

I'm fairly confident that sometime in the future the beta symbol will be added back to the beta versions of all the products.

[Rahel]

The new, large, square, flat program icon is, to be kind, devoid of beauty.

While an icon is just an icon, the styles used for Photo and Designer are very distinctive and attractive - it is not possible to.miss them on the dock. Why set out to replace them with meaningless squares?

The key to 'continuous product improvement' is in the last word of those three.

 

[Peter Green]

I looked at the new icon and thought, "That makes sense."

I understand that there is some attraction in having consistency of shape, and this is lost to an extent in the new icon. However, it is a triangle/ A-shaped device, only, this time, overlaid on a corner cropped rectangle. So there is some consistency.

On the other hand, the Photo icon centres a representation of a camera iris on the triangle, which is appropriate for a photography program, while the Designer icon emphasises lines and filled shapes to make up the triangle -- again, fitting for a vector program. I took it that the rectangle represented a piece of paper, curled over in the way paper is often iconically represented, with the Affinity A/triangle overlaid on the "page" as text is on a page. Again, the triangle identifies Affinity, and both colour and detail indicate the individual program.

I can accept that.

EDIT:
After writing this, I found the new icons for Photo and Designer on the Publisher task bar, as I came here while the new version was installing. I hope that this doesn't indicate that the new icons are going to spread to the other two programs themselves, though I suppose it does. That doesn't make sense to me! All you would have to go on for quick identification of the program, if that were the case, would be the colour.

There should be redundancy in  icon information, particularly as we see so many icons!

Edited November 20, 2018 by Peter Green
Additional information had come to hand.

[Mandu]

21 hours ago, Rahel said:

The new, large, square, flat program icon is, to be kind, devoid of beauty.

While an icon is just an icon, the styles used for Photo and Designer are very distinctive and attractive - it is not possible to.miss them on the dock. Why set out to replace them with meaningless squares?

The key to 'continuous product improvement' is in the last word of those three.

 

All big things have small beginnings. I know that after some time Publisher will be on par with Indesign.

[bbwd]

20 hours ago, Peter Green said:

I looked at the new icon and thought, "That makes sense."

I understand that there is some attraction in having consistency of shape, and this is lost to an extent in the new icon. However, it is a triangle/ A-shaped device, only, this time, overlaid on a corner cropped rectangle. So there is some consistency.

On the other hand, the Photo icon centres a representation of a camera iris on the triangle, which is appropriate for a photography program, while the Designer icon emphasises lines and filled shapes to make up the triangle -- again, fitting for a vector program. I took it that the rectangle represented a piece of paper, curled over in the way paper is often iconically represented, with the Affinity A/triangle overlaid on the "page" as text is on a page. Again, the triangle identifies Affinity, and both colour and detail indicate the individual program.

I can accept that.

EDIT:
After writing this, I found the new icons for Photo and Designer on the Publisher task bar, as I came here while the new version was installing. I hope that this doesn't indicate that the new icons are going to spread to the other two programs themselves, though I suppose it does. That doesn't make sense to me! All you would have to go on for quick identification of the program, if that were the case, would be the colour.

There should be redundancy in  icon information, particularly as we see so many icons!

I'm afraid the square icons are coming to Designer and Photo. I commented on Twitter about the icon change and was sent this by someone who is using the beta versions.

 

[Ash]

To offer some explanation on the icons. One of the completely unique things about Affinity is that we have our apps on iOS, Windows and Mac. More than that, they are exactly the same apps - same back end, same features and same file format. It’s important for us to be able to talk about the apps without always having a hard distinction between iPad and desktop and so it doesn't make sense to have completely different icons on those platforms (other than the rounded corners Apple give all icons on iOS).

On top of that, we felt the current icons don't work as well when they are very small or on darker backgrounds as the silhouette gets lost, or indeed on Windows where the start menu and MS Store is a lot more set up for square icons.

Hopefully that gives you some insight into our rationale, and if you're not keen on them you can forgive us! We knew it was something which could be a little controversial.

Thanks,

Ash

p.s. we are making a few tweaks to the size on Mac - as has been said by a few on here they are perhaps a few pixels too big. Also we decided to not worry about having a beta indicator on these - the main reason we have had that before is to distinguish between the beta and retail version when you have both installed, but as the icons have changed on this round that isn't needed. We will have a beta indicator on them for any future beta versions once the 1.7 versions have shipped.

 

[bbwd]

It's a shame you are changing them. The new square icon just looks too much like the Adobe CS6 apps on my iMac.

[mac_heibu]

On 11/21/2018 at 11:49 AM, bbwd said:

It's a shame you are changing them. The new square icon just looks too much like the Adobe CS6 apps on my iMac.

WHAT?? Are you sure, you don‘t need glasses?

Saying this is the same, is like telling us, an iPad looks like a bar of chocolate, just because both are rectangular.

Perfect confusion  :

[fde101]

4 hours ago, Ash said:

doesn't make sense to have completely different icons on those platforms

Except that using the same ones on Mac and iOS actually violates the human interface guidelines.

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/icons-and-images/app-icon/

 

Quoting from that page: "If you’re creating a macOS version of an iOS app, redesign your app icon. Your macOS app icon should be recognizable, but not a copy of your iOS app icon. In particular, the macOS icon shouldn’t use the same rounded rectangle shape that the iOS icon uses."  (emphasis taken from that page, as-is).

[GarryP]

It's interesting that they recommend using a different App icon between macOS and iOS but don't give a rationale as to why.

[Ash]

 

1 hour ago, fde101 said:

Except that using the same ones on Mac and iOS actually violates the human interface guidelines.

It's all ok - plenty of apps do not have material difference between iOS and Mac anymore other than the rounded corners which we are obeying. Unlike some.

[jmwellborn]

38 minutes ago, Ash said:

 

It's all ok - plenty of apps do not have material difference between iOS and Mac anymore other than the rounded corners which we are obeying. Unlike some.

Thank you, Ash, for putting up with us!     As for my MAC dock, there won’t be any problem distinguishing between Adobe and Affinity icons.    Because there won’t BE any Adobe icons.  This is all reminiscent of the old Peter Principle, that a corporation board meeting spends the longest time arguing over the size of the wastebaskets.     I am sure we will find the new icons to be just fine after a week or two.   

[fde101]

30 minutes ago, jmwellborn said:

just fine

Yep, just fine - that's all.  They will work.

The old ones were great.

[Rahel]

Re. comments by Ash.

How sad that we have to accept this change so that our icon images conform to the limitations of Windows.

Yuk!

[fde101]

45 minutes ago, Rahel said:

conform to the limitations of Windows.

I get the impression that it has more to do with conforming to the limitations of iPad, which Apple explicitly indicates Mac icons are not supposed to do anyway, but whatever it is...

[bbwd]

7 hours ago, mac_heibu said:

WHAT?? Are you sure, you don‘t need glasses?

Saying this is the same, as telling us, an iPad looks like a bar of chocolate, just because both are rectangular.

Perfect confusion  :

Too much like as in square. I’d prefer them to be shaped  

As for the glasses comment - I already wear them. 

[mac_heibu]

Like it or dislike it, but saying, because the icons are square, they look like Adobe icons in my eyes is completely out of all reason.

[Fixx]

22 hours ago, bbwd said:

The new square icon just looks too much like the Adobe CS6 apps on my iMac.

The rationale is that you will throw away CS6 and replace it with Affinity :-D Seamless transition.... 

(Of course few of us are going to replace Adobe apps for a while.. maybe a long while..)

[bbwd]

2 hours ago, Fixx said:

The rationale is that you will throw away CS6 and replace it with Affinity :-D Seamless transition.... 

(Of course few of us are going to replace Adobe apps for a while.. maybe a long while..)

That's what I'm hoping but with 7 years of freelance work archived it may not be that easy. 

[Sabine 108]

I just wish that the orange colour of apub's icon would be much more gaudy. Why not good old 100y40m or something.

 

[fde101]

On 11/22/2018 at 3:55 AM, Fixx said:

The rationale is that you will throw away CS6 and replace it with Affinity :-D Seamless transition.... 

That works both ways.

 

Meanwhile, if the Designer icon is supposed to be a pencil, I think they should sharpen it a bit more.  The amount of tip on that one suggests a rather chubby pencil or a very dull one.

[Jowday]

The new icons are fine as icons and logos. Start creating with the software. 

[Coffee]

51 minutes ago, Wafer said:

The new icons are fine as icons and logos. Start creating with the software. 

Agreed.

[Scrimshaw]

As a professional Graphic Artist in the print industry that has to switch between programs constantly, I have to say I do not like the look or "usability" of the new icons, they blend in with all the other icons and I really have to make an effort to find the correct one.  I realize that it is new so that is part of it, but I have other programs with the same problem and I am always starting up the wrong one when hurrying through tasks.  I would much more appreciate an icon that readily identifies the program.  I liked the old icons better if just for that fact.