Closed (fixed)
Project:
Rules
Version:
6.x-1.x-dev
Component:
Rules Engine
Priority:
Normal
Category:
Task
Assigned:
Issue tags:
Reporter:
Created:
6 Mar 2009 at 19:49 UTC
Updated:
3 Jan 2014 at 00:07 UTC
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Comments
Comment #1
mitchell commentedComment #2
bekasu commentedHow about something here?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gear_icons
Comment #3
mitchell commentedGood find, bekasu. I'd be down for a gears like icon.
My friend, Nica, thought to make a graphic like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Newtons_cradle_animat...
Comment #4
bekasu commentedAnother excellent concept.
Wish I was artistic.
I'd recommend a split arrow on the floor or the background of the gear or the newton's cradle... give some a sense of decision making.
Comment #5
mitchell commentedI disagree, the ambiguous direction makes sense to me. Here's why: events can trigger actions that in return create new events that trigger new actions, etc.
For instance: user creates node. node is emailed to users in a role. users responds to email. responses becomes new nodes. new nodes gets categorized in several places, which then creates new roles. and on and on and on....
Perhaps we could use different colors in the balls to denote actions, events, and conditions, though keeping them all the same color may better represent the dynamic nature of where/when these actions can exist. Forgive me if I'm getting to philosophical. :)
Comment #6
bekasu commentedmmmm
Arrows could represent a unified direction (a la workflow); however, I like the different colors concept.
Thinking further... a condition would turn from red (not passed) to green (passed) in a diagram explaining rules-eca.
An action could be tan for passive things (viewing a page) and gradiant up to orange for more active things (populate a field) -- OR
An action could be color coded based on its category (cck, node, system, etc.)
The multi-color aspect, used carefully is a more powerful idea.
I'd tip my hat to you if I had it on :)
Comment #7
amitaibuI'm a -1 for gif animations. Not only it's not in core, IMO it doesn't have a professional look.
Comment #8
bekasu commentedCompletely agree.
Animated gifs are usually 2 dimensional looking.
I much prefer something with a 3d look (appropriate shadows, reflectivity if going the realistic way) or (bright primary colors for iconic or cartoon approach).
Comment #9
fagoI like the idea of using gears, however we should not just use already famous gears from another OO project like KDE - as people would recognize that ;)
What about using gears like those http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cog-scripted-svg-green.svg and labelling each gear as a module, e.g. CCK, Token and Flag ? So it would show that "rules" are helping other modules to play together? (condition from CCK, token-enabled action, reacts on flag event). Perhaps we could do a gear in the middle, representing "rules" ?
But probably just "gears" are looking better and say enough.
or this one?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gnome-applications-utilities.svg
Comment #10
yoroy commentedMind you that gears are already very often used to depict generic "settings" functionality. I'd suggest exploring other metaphors too, the ones that illustrate the cause-and-effect / chain-of-events aspect of rules. It's not really fair to expect an icon to explain the functionality though, it can only try and capture the gist of it.
Dominos?
Comment #11
fago>Mind you that gears are already very often used to depict generic "settings" functionality.
Hm, that's true.
> It's not really fair to expect an icon to explain the functionality though, it can only try and capture the gist of it.
Yep, it don't expect from it to explain the functionality.
@dominos: I'd prefer something that better represents the complexity of a system, so that there is not only a single part, but a lot of rules and events, each of it interacting with each other. (rule -> event -> rule .. ). Dominos make the impression of rules standing alone, but they do interact.
Perhaps we could just use a questionmark and some arrows, representing alternative behaviours depending on a condition?
Maybe we can identify good icons for the condition and actions first, then reuse them for the "rules icon" and do a condition icon with two arrows leading to two different actions?
Comment #12
mitchell commentedThe direction this is going right now is a Newton's cradle on a platform in a container. Similar to the http://www.37signals.com/ icons.
Comment #13
fagoOk great, I'm looking forward to a first draft.. ! :)
Comment #14
nicelobster commentedHey Peoples. Mitchell tasked me with coming up with a log for this. I'm attaching some of them. I like the yellow slanty one the best.
nica
Comment #15
nicelobster commentedHere is one other one I forgot to attach too.
Comment #16
mitchell commentedComment #17
bekasu commentedwow -
I wish I was so good in graphics.
IMHO - I prefer the green/blue versions rather than the gold. Since the base color for drupal icon is blue, it seems more related if we stay in the same color family.
I prefer no 'snowglobe' top. Rules/triggers/actions seems like it should be free and open rather than encapsulated.
If you use the tilted base, then the balls don't hang correctly (sorry for the double entendre). If you use the horizontal base, then the balls hang correctly.
Now for the nit. The string for the 'flying ball' doesn't seem like it is connected to the top horizontal bar. It looks like it is connected to the front vertical strut.
I'm not meaning to be overly critical. These are really small things, I just wanted to provide a little feedback.
bekasu
Comment #18
fagoI also prefer no 'snowglobe' top - so I've just put picture 25 on the project page. Thanks a lot!! :)