The icon set consists of two type of icons: labels and function icons.
For labels I use two dimensional icons. This is a metaphor for the real world where traffic signs and signs at airports and at train station are two dimensional too.
The fore label stand for:
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A nod in a semantic net. That is a signification. |
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A definition. The definition includes several nodes. |
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A positive example. This is shown by three means: The green colour, the plus sign and the shape that coincides with the definition. |
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A negative example. This is also visualised by three means: The red colour, the minus sign and the shape pattern that is different from to the definition. |
For functions I use moving signs. They should show that one can trigger an action here and they should also give a short movie of what can be done. An additional feature of this series of icons is to use the perspective of colours: Green for often used icons blue for more distant (seldom used) icons. A function in progress could be visualised by a blinking or red sign. Another idea would be to visualise a function by a button. The button would return to the initial position when the function has terminated.
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This icon stands for printing. All printers use a mechanism to get a piece of paper through the printer. The usual icons for printing show some sort of standard printer (a matrix impact printer) that might not be understood by novice users. |
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The print preview is something difficult to visualise. I choose to visualise the possibility to show different scales. |
In this set, there are no icons for tools. I believe a three dimensional picture would be best to visualise tools. In reality tools are also three dimensional. A good idea would be to change the cursor to the tool icon shape (as it is for instance in applications for painting and drawing) and to remove the tool from the icon when the tool is in use at it is in real world.
