We now have an official candidate for an icon set from #606490: Drupal GPL icons - a softfacade initiative:
(click for full view).
The D7UX concept included some icons, most notably and importantly the high res ones for the toolbar for add and find content
(the global edit button never made its way into real-life D7).
So how about reviewing the icons specifically for the toolbar first, and having a look in what other places a gentle iconizing makes sense. Due to lack of an official collection, some other icons have been comitted to core. To start a consequent Icon CI those must be reviewed and maybe replaced by the new ones.
Anton has included Photoshop source files: http://drupal.org/node/606490#comment-2586948 so the icons can be fully edited and tweaked. There are full color, smaller and also outline and positive/negative versions. The photoshop files contain paths, so basically this is vector data, all that is needed.
Adding the Toolbar icons will make a major change to the interface since it makes the add and find icons a _lot_ more prominent, so we should add them soon or if we do not add them, have a good reason to do so.
| Comment | File | Size | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screenshot-001.png | 13.41 KB | eigentor |
Comments
Comment #1
eigentor commentedAh, it is practically impossible to know where your attachment ends up, since the path is changed after submit and one cannot edit the initial issue, so here the image for the toolbar icons again:
Comment #2
yoroy commentedBecause _any_ admin page can be added as a shortcut it's impossible _for core_ to implement icons for these. I would agree that this is a good use case for icons. But as you know, core doesn't make too many assumptions on its uses, making this basically undoable because we'd have to create icons for all admin pages, and then some…
I do agree that the icons that are in core right now need an overhaul and redesign for a consistent look.
Comment #3
amc commentedThese icons look great!
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the above comment, but I don't see what's wrong with the most popular admin pages (i.e., the ones most likely to be added to the shortcut bar) having an icon, and if a particular page doesn't have one then just use the text only, like we do now. Icons would be a fantastic visual cue for remembering where things are. As we all know, it's much easier to scan for an icon than scanning for text.
Are there other places besides the shortcut bar where icons would be desirable?
A special icon for the Dashboard might be in order, although the "Settings" gear might work just as well.
Comment #4
eigentor commented@yoroy: It should be possible to add the icons to add content and find content, as these are the default shortcuts that come with core.
With ones the user added it is agreed: we cannot foresee what is added by the user and these do not really need icons.
Well actually I know at the moment it is even technically impossible to add the icons to add content and find content, since the links come without specific CSS class.
The win in Orientation for the newbie User should though be a justification to add these. It should be possible to generate classes from the path. O.K. this needs another issue to do so. Not having the icons loses quite a bit from the oriniginal concept of Mark and Leisa.
Aha, and here is the issue : #551172: Use path based CSS classes instead of ID to style toolbar items individually (for icons)
Comment #5
Jeff Burnz commentedI think the entire concept of Seven is to be clean and uncluttered. Icons don't automagically improve usability - this a misnomer. They can quite easily reduce usability by being a needless distraction. We are not trying to build Admin module theme or something like Root Candy, this theme is meant to be minimal.
This is not a task either, its a feature request. With no updates for 6 months I think we can safely close this one out?
Comment #6
eigentor commentedI guess yes, Jeff. It did not meet too much love.
Meanwhile I am not so sure about it anymore anyway. Let's Iconize Drupal 8. ;)