[Sigia-l] Iconic paradigms

[Listera]

Pierre Abel:
> If not looking for a  visually pleasant design, what could be the goal
> of using not metaphorical icons ?

My inquiry was not about metaphor vs. art. But more narrowly: realistic or
abstract depiction of physical objects to represent concepts with which they
are intimately related in the physical world. For example, mailbox or
envelope for email, even though electronic mail has nothing to do with
either obviously.

However, as I pointed out as an example, a cloud icon has come to represent
the notion of WWW, internet, connectedness, packet switching networks, etc.,
even though networkability has nothing to do with water and ice particles
suspended in the air.

So the question is: what could be a good icon for, say, email, if not a
mailbox or envelope? How do we decouple physicality from inference? Is
metaphor merely usage? And so on...

---- 
Ziya

Best Practices,
For when you've run out of your own ideas and context.