[IxDA Discuss] Power icon

[Katie Albers]

Considering I have actual relatives who would never in a million 
years make the connection between on/off and 1/0, (and they are not 
stupid, old, uneducated or otherwise outlying cases) I think it's 
foolish to believe that this symbol is as universally comprehensible 
as you would like to believe it is. It is certainly not "universally 
recognized" or known.

Katie


>Why would it lose its meaning in an underdeveloped country??
>
>I think you would have to travel pretty far to find a country where people
>didn't know the meaning of 0 and 1.
>And if you where even able to find a country that didn't know 0 from 1,
>didn't have engineers and didn't have electricity they wouldn't need a power
>button anyway :-)
>Btw, check out the symbol used on the power button on the One Laptop Per
>Child.
>
>I've thought a little bit about why I react to this discussion. I agree that
>the symbol is very engineer-ish, not especially intuitive and not
>particularly good looking. But as an IxD I jump at ANY chance to build on
>prior knowledge, things people know. This symbol has been around for 40
>years, is standardized, is culture-proof - interpreted in exactly the same
>way over the entire globe. Are there more than a handful of other symbols in
>the same league? The play/pause symbol qualifies I guess. Why would anyone
>want to mess with a symbol that is universally recognized? Why not try to
>fix the gazillion of things that are broken instead of breaking the few
>things that work? I don't get it.
>
>This is turning into a rant. Sorry! :-)
>
>Morten

-- 

----------------
Katie Albers
katie at firstthought.com