Icon Usability Project

[Thomas Chung]

On 8/8/06, Máirín Duffy <duffy at redhat.com> wrote:
> I would like to propose a project for those who'd like to be involved
> with the art project but who would prefer not to create artwork to
> increase the usability of the projects:
>
> (1) Create sheets of the currently-designed icons as-is and with various
>   filters applied them to synthesize how they might look from a distance
> or by visually-impaired users.
>
> (2) (Even better) Create a plug-in for the GIMP or Inkscape (similar to
> the icon view too) so as the artists work on the icons they can preview
> how their icons would look with the same filters applied to them within
> their graphics creation tool.
>
> The most recent issue of Boxes and Arrows has a very well-written
> article by Matt Queen about how to analyze and improve icons for
> discernibility.
>
> The two main vectors by which we perceive differences in visual
> information are:
>
> - P pathway - color & detailed shape (parvocellular)
> - M pathway - gross shape, luminance, motion (magnocellular)
>
> The more differences between icons in *both* of these aspects, the more
> discernable the icon will be. If icons all share the same color scheme
> and shape, for example, you're losing a lot of bandwidth for making the
> icons discernable.
>
> To make icons more discernible via the M pathway:
> - most simple method: 'squint'
> - better method: spatial frequency filtering. The author suggests using
> the R statistical package [1] (yes, it works on Linux as well as OS X
> and Windows.) He outlines the methodology quite well in the article. You
> can see an example of the output here:
>
> http://www.boxesandarrows.com/files/banda/icon_analysis/Icon_Analysis-02b-4.jpg
>
> Matt's suggestion for how to apply this for the creation of better icons:
>
> "I just mentioned in an email to Dustin Hamilton that he hit the nail on
> the head, distance filtering of icons is an evaluative technique—not a
> design technique. My knee-jerk reaction of how to coerce this method
> into a design tool is to create a plug-in for Photoshop or GIMP
> (preferably) that would allow an auto-updated window of the design space
> filtered at set distances. That way all design decisions (small and
> large) could be made in the context of the filtered frequency views. I
> imagine there is someone out there with enough talent and time to create
> such a tool. It seems like it would be useful."
>
> Thus my suggestion #2 above. Queen points out a paper with the equations
> upon which such a plug-in could be based on:
>
> http://retina.anatomy.upenn.edu/~bart/scriptie.html
>
> (see the paragraph that starts with "Later theories of perception yield...")
>
> If anyone is interested in this project please reply so we can organize.
>
> Also, for the record & to reduce potential confusion, I would like to
> make clear a non-goal of the Echo icon theme:
>
> - The goal of the Echo icon set is *not* to serve as a high-contrast and
> simple-shape icon set for blind and low-vision users. (The goal is to
> serve as a more general-purpose icon set.)
>
> Thanks,
> ~m
>
> [1] http://www.r-project.org/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Fedora-art-list mailing list
> Fedora-art-list at redhat.com
> http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-art-list
>

Now, I'm really confused.
What's the difference from Fedora Usability Project[1] and Icon
Usability Project?
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Usability
Regards,
-- 
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung