Comments on: More Informative Icons

By: Taras Brizitsky

Taras Brizitsky — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:36:31 +0000

Great article. We’ve (me and a couple of other designers) come to the idea of “live icons” in about the same time. There’ve been attempts to build them into existing software products I worked on but they all failed (both attempts and the application) :(
The ideas were far beyond badges. In fact I thought of icons as mini-widgets displaying a lot of info about application through their look. I haven’t thought of visual noise then, but even now I’m sure application developers could do a lot more to make use of icons displaying relevant data…

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 21:45:31 +0000

I would love an iPhoto icon like this, really great idea!

By: Daniel J. Wilson

Daniel J. Wilson — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 21:51:57 +0000

Thanks, Marc! As many problems as the Dock has (particularly in its default configuration), it can communicate a lot of information. The size of the canvas will only increase as time goes on. I wonder if 10.4 will support 256×256 icons in the Dock� I am fairly sure they are supported in the Finder.

By: Marc Nothrop

Marc Nothrop — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 16:17:15 +0000

Daniel, there’s some great examples there — I completely agree that the icons, particularly prominent as they are, via the Dock, are under-utilised as a passive feedback mechanism.