Patch lady – pet peeves about icons

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For my business needs I have to have Adobe acrobat.  It’s demanded by some of our business applications. So when I notice tonight that the icon in my
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Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Pepsiboy, Myst, Elly

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Size could be a problem: too large or too small. Otherwise I do not pay much attention to the icons on my screen. I put them there or let them stay there for a purpose other than to provide an esthetic experience and, as long as they are fit for it, I am OK with them. For an esthetic experience, I have the “Birth of Venus” of Botticelli for wallpaper. Somehow, it gets along OK with the icons.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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A long time ago I had a hankering to customize my icons because the Windows design bored me to tears, might have been on the XP. Specifically, my trash bin and can’t remember what else. Recycled bin became a tree. I must have had too much time on my hands. But yeah, the icons for some apps can be annoying and humdrum for sure. And some of the graphics just don’t match up.

MacOS iPadOS and sometimes SOS

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If you only need Adobe Acrobat, it can be installed standalone without the Creative Cloud Desktop App. I believe one can uninstall the Desktop App but then may have to sign in again the next time Acrobat is run.

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In my home PC, I am still using the last version of Adobe Acrobat that came out before it “went Cloud”. It works just fine, even with no updates for years now, for security or otherwise. But I only use it either to create my own PDF documents, or to look at the PDF documents I receive from trusted sources (such as the IRS) and, most of the time, where I am not the only recipient, so if I wait a little to see if there is a problem, I might learn about it before going ahead and opening the documents. So I also still see the old icons, which never bothered me. Today there are, of course, good “non Cloud” alternative applications for creating PDF, editing it, etc.

More generally, I don’t know how it is like in Windows 10, but in Windows 7 one could customize the icons to one’s taste; I used to do that with software I created myself, so each icon’s purpose was easily recognizable, as opposed to all looking the same “exec” little squares.

To me, icons have always been like speed-dialing buttons to launch software or open an window in some directory where I have files with data I need, or where I am doing some work. Aesthetically, they are unimportant, as long as they are unobtrusive, but not too small to make it difficult click accurately on them, particularly when I am in a hurry.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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If all you use it for in Win 7 is create and open PDFs, you can do that natively in Win 10 without Acrobat. No Adobe icons at all.

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[MWmC]

Good morning! I have been with the Adobe CC subscription plan since they launched it, and as a result i get invited into various testing programs. I always decline, since photography is a hobby for me, not a vocation, but i did see an invitation some time ago to a UX A/B testing program. Perhaps those who participated in that voted? The real question is: on what do they base their invitations for beta and other testing? I seem to get a lot of offers because of longevity (i assume), not heavy usage. But perhaps others are invited according to other parameters?

And, sorry, i didn’t answer your real question: i run an all-black background and place my icons on the desktop, so a little color looks good. I guess my only pet peeve is i cannot stand icons that do not scale well on my 2560×1440 monitor.

 

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by MWmC.

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I think Adobe changes the icons from time to time.  I have Creative Cloud for photographers and my Lightroom icon changed a couple of weeks ago.  I don’t use Acrobat, only Acrobat Reader and that icon remains unchanged.

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One problem I have seen is too many try to be ‘cute’ with color palettes and design ignoring there are many with various visual acuity problems. If Adobe did not bother to test the icons with a wide variety of people (not absolute numbers) they probably did not pick up on the design issue.

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People with a degree of color blindness could recognize an icon by the shapes drawn on it. If the shape is a tree, for example, someone with limited color vision may look for a tree, not for the colors it might have been given. That works, as long as the contour of the shape is darker than the background, or the other way around. In the case of the icon Susan shows in her comment, the white squiggle inside it might be harder to distinguish from a background of blobs of different light shades of grey. Even for someone with good color vision, like myself, that is not so easy to do, I’ve noticed. So that is a poorly designed icon. From a wealthy corporation such as Adobe, with a host of customers, supposedly with sufficient in-house resources and years of expertise, one would expect better.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Colorblindness is not the only issue. Cataracts and other vision problems will mess up visual acuity. Some, like cataracts, can be treated. Others are not treatable. And some of the untreatable ones tend to worsen with age.

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I’ve moved from Windows to Linux as my main operating system. Even so, icons can be a problem. Occasionally, after a new program has been installed, only a generic icon (placeholder) for the new program will appear on the applications menu of the operating system. I then have to go online, search for an appropriate icon, perhaps resize it, select an appropriate location to store it, and tell the OS to use it for the new program. This happens so frequently, that I’ve installed a program called “Main Menu” to assign the icon that I’ve selected. The fact Main Menu contains this functionality tells me other users are finding the need to install a separate program (Main Menu) just to add an icon that should have been there in the first place.

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Cybertooth

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Adobe is not the lone offender when it comes to unwanted cosmetic changes. After suffering through the last few years of updates from Microsoft I believe most “upgrades” are more cosmetic than functional! At least Adobe, unlike Microsoft, has given us a few changes that are actually useful. (Not that I like everything Adobe changed.) Change can be good. Change just to change is counterproductive!

As for icons, some have annoyed me so much I took the time to change them. Unfortunately not all can be altered.

 

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SueW, Myst

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It’s not just Adobe.  I’ve noticed the Windows calculator icon I have on my taskbar has changed over the last few weeks.  It’s terrible and looks like it was programmed out of the Commodore 64 sprite editor days back in the 80’s.  It’s the little things that annoy us the most, huh? LOL

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Myst

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I don’t usually care so much about icons as long as they retain the same color they had. Affinity, for example , changed the shape of their icons, but not the colors.  Easy-peasy.

But I, like you, just hate that Outlook and Word now have essentially the same color in the teensy icons in my task bar.  The more I have to stop and look and make sure I have the right icon, the less valuable icons are.  They’re shortcuts.  If they don’t make the process shorter, they fail.

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Adobe has published a statement about the various logo and icon changes:

https://theblog.adobe.com/evolving-our-brand-identity/

Specifically, w/regard to the new, more colorful Creative Cloud logo:

Adobe Creative Cloud

Color plays an important role in the way we express Creative Cloud and our broad range of creative products. The new Creative Cloud logo brings the colors of our product brands and our new corporate red together into one beautiful gradient that represents the importance of creativity. We are also increasing the weight of the Creative Cloud logo itself to increase legibility and scalability.

-Noel

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I kind of like it. But I don’t keep it in the system tray. I see it only when I need to open the Adobe CC app.

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