Posted February 7th, 2004 @ 05:25pm by Erik J. Barzeski
So here ya go: the final PulpFiction icon. We took some suggestions on the wording, bumped up the vibrancy, and added a half-tone per some suggestions from the previous version.
What do you think? We're very pleased. Development on PulpFiction is in full swing as some tail ends are tied on Rock Star. We're squeezin' 'em out, baby!
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Posted 07 Feb 2004 at 5:53pm #
i like it a lot, but i still don't know what pulp fiction does
Posted 07 Feb 2004 at 6:36pm #
(you asked for a critique, so here you go)
The artwork is excellent, but ideally, I feel a user should be able to get an idea of what an application does from its icon, and frankly, a couple of comic book about oranges with a pair of granny reading glasses in front don't really tell me anything, except that this application does something and that it is made by Fresh Squeezed. It seems like usability considerations have taken a back seat to being clever. I'm not sure that is a good thing.
Posted 07 Feb 2004 at 6:41pm #
The only thing I can think of that PulpFiction does (based on the name and icon) is an app for managing a weblog
Posted 07 Feb 2004 at 6:48pm #
"Anonymous Reviewer" (lame name): the app icon makes sense in the context of "what it does." You don't know what it does, so you're hardly going to be capable of telling me that it doesn't make sense.
And to the guy under you: no, it doesn't do that.
Posted 07 Feb 2004 at 6:59pm #
The first thing I think of when I see "PulpFiction", and I suspect this would be true for many potential users, is the movie. If PulpFiction is going to be a blog editor, I would change the cover of the comic so it has something to do with the world wide web. Change the speech bubble to "blog!" or something related to what the application actually does instead of being clever.
(and again, its a very nice piece of artwork, but a well designed icon has to be functional in addition to being pretty to look at)
Posted 07 Feb 2004 at 7:09pm #
but I should be able to figure out what "PulpFiction" does from the icon. That's the whole fucking point
and the originality of my name is not important. you asked for opinions. I am giving you one. You many not like it, feel free to ignore it, but there you go.
Posted 07 Feb 2004 at 7:32pm #
Well, it's safe to say we disagree. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Good of you to pipe up after we've chosen our final icon and not the five times before.
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 5:13am #
Geeze, you ask for comments, and when someone gives you one, you jump on him or her:
Good of you to pipe up after we've chosen our final icon and not the five times before.
Why?
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 7:57am #
I disagree with you, and I gave you reasons why. If you can't participate in a discussion, then please don't bother. Why was it "good of you" to say something after we've settled on the final version, and not the four times we've shown icons before? Think about it…
And next time, leave an actual name! I'm sick of people who lack the balls to leave a name. You expect a meaningful conversation yet you can't bother to sign off on your opinions?
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 11:49am #
Maybe he hadn't looked at the icon the previous four times? Not everybody is a daily reader of your blog.
It seems to me that you were sort of snippy out of the gate with the anonymous reviewer. Nothing that he said was a personal attack or the least bit rude, and he explained the assumptions behind his critique rather well. If you didn't want opinions from strangers, I don't see why you ask questions on a public blog.
I'd leave my name but I don't see why it's relevant to my thoughts here.
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 11:59am #
You didn't leave your name. Nor an email address. I put the sentence "Have some guts and use a real name, email, and URL" above the comments area for a reason.
Leaving a comment without a name or email isn't commenting, it's sniping. It's cowardly and silly. If I can't leave a comment because I fear retributions from someone who might see my name, I email the author individually.
Leave a name. "A Big Fan" is not a name, especially when it lacks an email address and/or a URL.
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 12:18pm #
There's nothing inherently like "sniping' in leaving a comment in response to a request for opinions, even if you leave it without a name. If you'd walked in the middle of a crowded restaurant and loudly asked if your fly was open, you wouldn't expect people to show you some ID before they told you the truth.
You solicited an opinion from strangers. And when you got one you didn't like, you were quite rude to the guy. Changing the argument to one about anonymity on the web is just a different kind of cowardice.
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 12:47pm #
Howard, I disagree, especially when I've got - in bold no less - a sentence asking people to leave their name. Your story about walking into a restaurant doesn't fit this situation. You're wrong in that I didn't solicit an opinion from strangers: I solicited an opinion from whoever might read this post. Most of those people are friends.
I also disagree that I was rude about his opinion of the icon. I pointed out that the reviewer probably doesn't know what PulpFiction does. I believe that an app's icon should give you a clue, but I feel that this icon does. I'm in the unique position to be able to know this. I agree with the poster and understand the importance of an icon giving clues towards an application's functionality, but I can also give you a big big list of apps that break that rule (the entire Office suite, all of Adobe's products, BBEdit, Safari, Adium… heck, nearly everything in my dock right now).
Any snippiness or rudeness was aimed at the fact that people can't or won't leave a name, not at their opinions that this icon suffers because it - like so many others - fails to immediately clue the viewer in to the exact function of the application.
I've always considered turning off anonymous comments. Would I get less? Yes. Would I get better ones? Perhaps.
Howard, what good does a quick "hit and run" comment from someone who can't leave a name and a contact address (you've failed to do this) do? How can I follow up with the person, really delve into their opinion, and come to a better understanding?
I like criticism. I love it. I just hate, despise, and detest "hit and run" comments. Have some guts and use a real name, email, and URL.
It's cowardly of me? Hardly, Howard.
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 12:55pm #
No e-mail address means no spam. As for me, that means I post anonymously or not at all. It's not about "cowardice"-- it's about keeping my contact info. from harvesters. Besides, lighten up a little... words like "cowardly" have nothing to do with little blogs, but more to do with battlefields.
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 1:00pm #
If you leave a URL - even if it's http://www.apple.com or whatever - your email address is not "harvestable" (in quotes because I don't think that's a word).
The only person who sees your email address at that point is me - which is great because it can result in good offline (not in comments) follow-up conversations.
Gee, guess I'd already said that. Right before Have some guts and use a real name, email, and URL. I guess perhaps I don't want people posting if they can't even bother to read… how valuable is their opinion?
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 1:27pm #
At least no one signed as Anne Onymous.
-ducks-
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 1:56pm #
Lighten up! I'm confused... you've been fussing over the disuse of real name, email and URL, but now your most recent post suggests that merely a URL would be fine. So, which is it? Make up your mind, and while you're at it, don't expect others to read same!
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 1:59pm #
Whatever you say, Oprah, errrr, Adam.
And to the anonymous chickenshit of 1:56pm, try this on for size: the word "and." A URL will cover up an email address, but the text on my site says "a name, email, AND URL."
I never suggested people leave "merely" a URL.
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 4:26pm #
Ummm, Eric, Cool off. And, yes, you do suggest in the following that no e-mail address is required:
"If you provide a URL, your email address is not displayed or in anyway "obtainable" by spambots." (Since posting an e-mail address explicitly would quite readily be harvestable by spambots, you imply that instead providing a url would be 'bot-proof' alternative.) Also, it's "any way."
Thanks for playing. And, nobody in my combat unit thought I was a chickenshit in Afghanistan. Grow up.
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 4:41pm #
Anonymous guy at 2:46 - you're wrong in your interpretation of, what's that called… English?
Posting a URL "covers up" the email address. Movable Type shows the URL in comments listings (view the source if you want) and only shows the email address to me so that I can follow up with anyone who leaves a comment.
I'm rather cool about things. You're the one playing the "I'm a tough guy and you're not" card.
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 5:34pm #
Hey, I'm not playing "tough guy" at all. I just got tired of being repeatedly called someone "without guts" and a "chickenshit," so I simply decided to say, "no, I'm not," (in so many words). By the way, no matter what one types in the "Name," "Email Address," and "URL" fields, nothing says that those data are authentic. Maybe if you instituted a challenge/response system verify e-mail addresses before submissions were posted, at least you'd know you had the e-mail address right...
Posted 08 Feb 2004 at 5:48pm #
I don't care if you don't use a real name. Choose a moniker or an online username. "iacas" is mine and others have theirs. With at least a steady moniker I can identify readers and begin to assemble a mental picture of how they think, thus aiding in communication. Use a real email address but put blah.com as your URL if you want. I have no problem when I see comments like this (with a moniker and a fake URL) if the email address is valid.
Anonymous posting is similar to someone screaming "you suck" from a crowd of people. There's no hope for identifying the person or pursuing a meaningful conversation. You are cowardly trying to remain anonymous and using the crowd for cover. I know your IP. How anonymous do you really think you are, anyway?
Posted 09 Feb 2004 at 1:53am #
Well i know I'm too late for the conversation about the icon, but that's not going to stop me. I think the icon is very nice, and communicates it's purpose just fine, though I really have no idea what it is. But it seems to me that this icon says, I display fresh content. And what is a an emerging popular software market with a severe lack of major players on the Mac OS X platform? Syndication.
Funny, of all the great applications I've heard Erik talk about, NetNewsWire hasn't really been one of them.
Random comment I couldn't manage to hold back: Although I thank you for your time spent in our country's armed forces, and really I wish you never would have had to go there in the first place, to compare your bravery there to your time spent on the internet is really not appropriate.
Posted 01 Mar 2004 at 8:39pm #
Pulp Fiction Icons
Application and Toolbar Icon for Freshly Squeezed Software This is definitely the longest icon project I've been in. The long length on designing application icon was mainly my fault because of the difficulty in coming up with a good...
Posted 06 Mar 2004 at 8:16am #
I've read through the comments and it seems both of you guys make good points. And I agree with "A Big Fan"; what if he hadn't passed by your weblog earlier? I can ofcourse understand your stance of this, Erik, being tired of new people coming in and wanting to change it; but again you asked for comments. ("What do you think?") This could be interpreted as both "if you've got any small adjustments, tell me" and "the logo's finished, we won't change it, now how does it look?" to me - I don't regard an icon as final before it's in a shipped product, because there's always some space to fix small things in it, but that's just me ofcourse.
As for this whole stance on anonymous posting; why don't you just disallow anonymous posting and only link URLs if they're set and never email? If someone did want a link to their email (which I suggest they don't), they could leave a mailto: URL.
Also, the "use a real name, email and URL" sounds to me as if it asks for a "real name" although I understand "real" applies to all three of them. It also sounds like it's going against the previous sentence by saying "okay, use your real email but you can disguise it with a URL" and then "use a real URL" (in bold, too!)
Alas, this is all nitpicking. The icon's very good, and I, as well as Stevie, think it's a NNW competitor.