OmniGraffle 3 Icons: UGH!
Posted April 18th, 2003 @ 04:09pm by Erik J. Barzeski
How do I feel about OmniGraffle Pro 3's icons? Let's see, to put it bluntly, UGH!
Rick Roe still works for Omni Group, doesn't he? This Rick Roe, the one with the icon design site? The icon to the right is an OmniGraffle 3 Pro (is there a difference) icon. I expected more from Omni.
The app icon is gorgeous (see my previous post). The document icon? I know we're a picky group, us Mac users, but ugh. Ugh. Have I said ugh yet? Capital UGH.
Donate Life
Posted 18 Apr 2003 at 4:51pm #
Is your problem with the background to the icon, or the image in the middle? You probably know this already, but the image in the middle is a little snapshot of the content of the file itself (at least it is for me). I think that's quite a cool effect: the Omni logo on blue at the top gives some consistency and identifies it as an OmniGraffle file, but the preview reminds you what the file is.
Posted 18 Apr 2003 at 5:47pm #
I would agree with Erik on this one. I guess I hadn't noticed the document icons yet, but they're not very nice looking.
As for who is doing them, wasn't the kid who did the Watson icon working for them now? I bet he did most of the toolbar icons and the app icon.
Posted 18 Apr 2003 at 5:48pm #
I know it's a snapshot, but this fails because, well, can you tell what that picture is? It's at its largest size right now. Will I know in a week what that image is? I doubt it. Plus it doesn't seem to change as I change my document dramatically.
Ugly. 🙁 I use filenames and location to determine the contents of a file, and I rarely, rarely view at 128 x 128. They should have gone with real icons. 😛
Posted 18 Apr 2003 at 5:56pm #
I'm sure he's talking about the image int he middle. And I agree. The image should be a simple diagram instead, which also makes for a much more scalable icon.
Posted 24 Apr 2003 at 3:47pm #
OmniGraffle 3
Erik Barzeski has some good criticism of OmniGraffle 3 and its icons. The new palettes look cool, and I was never really a fan of the old Interface Builder–style ones. I think I want something more context-sensitive.