SEM540b. Graphics and HCI
Class Exercise for Week 4. Icon Design.

This is a design exercise for a computer-based system. It will test your clarity of thought, your artistic and graphic art ability and your principles of good design (but don’t bother about artistry so long as you can make yourself understood).

You are part of a development team charged with producing a new file-handling package and your team has to produce a full set of icons. This is a totally new product and so must differ from any existing package. Most of the existing software uses the paradigm of an office with data printed on sheets of paper and stored in folders which in turn are stored in filing-cabinets. Your team will need to develop a new paradigm for records in computer files and produce suitable icons for the obvious functions such as:
creating a new file.
opening an existing file.
saving a file.
closing a file.
reading a record from a file.
writing a record to a file.
(do the records have to be a constant size or not? If not, writing a larger record will risk overwriting the beginning of the next record. Do you only allow records to be appended to the end of a file if they are of variable size?).

Lay out your icons and label them with the associated functions. See whether your group has a coherent set of icons which can be used together or whether some need to be redisigned to avoid confusion. Consider the following questions.

Are all the icons clear and obvious in meaning?
Are they as clear in black-and-white as well as in colour?
Has colour been used sensibly, consistently and in accordance with prior expectations (e.g. red for danger)?
What is the overall effect (icons cannot be designed in isolation)? Is cluttered or clear?

Draw the final set of icons on the transparency provided and be ready to discuss them with the other groups.

S.Laflin. 6th December 1996.