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Icons
Toolbar Icons
The concept behind toolbars is that they provide access to items as if they were sitting on a shelf in front of you. Toolbars should conserve screen real estate while still being inviting and easily clickable; 32 pixels by 32 pixels is the recommended size for toolbar icons.
Figure 11-16 Finder toolbar icons
Each toolbar icon should be easily and quickly distinguishable from the other items in the toolbar. Toolbar icons emphasize their outline form. As shown in Figure 11-17, each Finder toolbar icon’s shape is unique.
Figure 11-17 Toolbar icons and their dominant shapes
Note that although each Finder toolbar icon has a unique shape, the icons harmonize together in their perspective, use of color, size, and visual weight.
Although icons designed specifically for use in a toolbar appear as if they are sitting on a shelf in front of you, if you place a very recognizable object from elsewhere in the interface in a toolbar, the object should retain its perspective. That is, don’t redesign a toolbar version of a well-known interface element.
Icon Genres and Families |
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Apple Computer, Inc. June 2002
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Icons
Figure 11-18 The circled icons appear elsewhere in the interface; they retain their perspective when used in a toolbar
For toolbars in applications, you can start with a consistent “look” when it makes sense, and introduce differences when necessary. In the Mail application toolbar, for example, the Reply, Reply All, Forward, and Bounce buttons—all for actions the user can apply to a selected received message—use a stamp as the dominant symbol. Because the Bounce button is potentially destructive (the user can no longer read the bounced message), its icon is red. The pencil is depicted in recognizable and realistic yellow.
Figure 11-19 The Mail toolbar
Creating a family of toolbar icons helps make an application recognizable and unique. Mail, for example, uses blue and white as dominant colors in its toolbar icons.
Also see “Toolbars” (page 133).
212Icon Genres and Families
Apple Computer, Inc. June 2002