I have a question!

Hopefully in the next few days I should have a Usability test that I have been working on with Björn Balazs from apliki.de on the K3B icons in that study I will pose the same question I'm about to pose now.
And hopefully a few more options, that will come from the feedback of this post.
So the question is......
"Data cd" 1 or 2?....
1
2

Don't think to hard, just fire the first thing that pops in your mind, that is the best way to judge a icon IMO..also if you have an better idea please share...I will try to include it in the usability test.

P.S Ofcourse the numbers will have to be redone for each size and the document as well... Its one source file for each icon. meaning this one = 14 files 7 png's and 7 svgz's.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Definitely the first one. It's more explicit, and prettier too :)
Michael Pyne said…
The first one.
Anonymous said…
maybe even a combination of the two. the first one with a faint "file icon" would be the best of both worlds?
Anonymous said…
First one.
Podstavsky said…
What about rescaled first to very small size? For ex. 22px? I think with 2nd one you'll take better effect :) And if I were you I would paste another blank page under the existing. That's just my opinion.
Anonymous said…
first one.
Wesley said…
Definitely first one :)
Anonymous said…
The first one. In addition it looks great!
Anonymous said…
3. None. Most CDs are, at least for me, data CDs. So, I would love a clean icon.
Fran Christophersen said…
The first one is prettier, but IMO it doesn't represent a 'data cd' very well, since 'music cd' are made out of ones and zeros too...

Perhaps you could try adding some sort of box symbol to represent the stored information. Anyway, keep up the good work... and good luck!
Unknown said…
The first one, though perhaps make the text darker to add more contrast and also make it more visible at smaller resolutions.

It is certainly more beautiful than the second, it just needs to be slightly more usability-minded.
I agree with Fran Christophersen, the ones and zeroes on the 1st icon don't add visual clues to me, since all CDs are binary info (in one case, for digital music).

What about adding a combination of folder and files icons?
Edd said…
definately the second one. However, the file icon inside the cd isn't clear enough.

Please don't go for the first one just because it's "prettier" (not true in my opinion), it would be impossible to recognize in small sizes and the metaphor doesn't even make sense (all cd's contain 1's and 0's).
Edd said…
Hey, Denis's idea of a folder icon in the cd is genius. A lot better than just the file
Eric said…
Yeah, definitely the first one. :)
Unknown said…
The first one is it.
Anonymous said…
No doubt, the first one. :]
Anonymous said…
first one definately
Augusto Leite said…
The first one is way prettier but I don't know how it would work on small sizes... well... i would choose the first
Unknown said…
I'd also go for the first one, though a folder or box/package might work. For people saying the binary doesn't make sense, I bet they completely forgot they click on a floppy disk everytime they want to save something. Which I think is safe to say, is never to an actual floppy :P. It's the metaphore that counts, logic should be out the window...
EY said…
First one is prettier, but in terms of conveying that it's a data CD, I like the suggestions about having a folder icon due to visibility at smaller sizes.

There should probably be at least a folder and something else (or three icons even), maybe overlapping at a moderate angle (the document icon on the second image is too straight)
ComaWhite said…
The first one FTW
Unknown said…
First one.
Karthikeyan said…
1st is prettier but not Data CD. A file icon or folder which is more prettier, darker would be great. Also the file icon need to be in center or top right.
Thomas DA said…
No doubt the second.

The first makes me think of binary data -> large executable / iso, while on the second cd I expect to find documents, images and smaller random files.
Anonymous said…
Greetings from India!!

First one!!
Ernie said…
I vote for icon number one. The binary data sequence works best for me.
Anonymous said…
The first one
Anonymous said…
First one! :-)
Anonymous said…
First one.
Anonymous said…
The first one is more explicit...
Unknown said…
first one
Javier said…
The first one by far :]
I do agree though that it might look strange at lower esolutions though :/
mmmike said…
surprised to see alltge votes for the first. the data-indicator in the first may be larger, the idea presented in the second seems like it will be much more consistent with other CD-R types
Jim said…
I think the first one is a clear winner. For some strange reason I think ISO when I see the second. What if you floated the ones and zeros around an image of something(maybe a folder).
Unknown said…
I'd say the first one.
Dread Knight said…
I agree with Podstavsky, the first one will suck if rescaled, looking forward to see how you'll take care of that.
dereine said…
For me the first one.
Danni Coy said…
Both initial thought was to go with the second one. After rationalising it I am still in favour of the second one.

The second one is more obvious to people who understand the desktop metaphor but not necessarily how hardware works. Secondly if you do understand how the hardware works then you still can become confused - the purpose icon is to communicate that the user wants a data disk rather than a special format like Audio CDs or DVDs. All of these formats comprise of 1s and 0s. What needs to be communicated is that the disk will contain files. The second communicates this fact the first does not

Having said that I really like the first Icon and would like to see it used somewhere - maybe as a decorative element or an animation depicting data being written onto a disk.
Anonymous said…
SECOND ONE!

well everybody thinks the first one is the data cd. but since evey cd/dvd holds data by coding it in ones and zeros, the difference between data and non data disc is not communicated. so please take the SECOND ONE...
Anonymous said…
First one. The second one is definetely not beautiful for my eyes.
Gökmen Göksel said…
First one ;)
Sergio Berton said…
Number one please!!
Pieter Bootsma said…
I completely agree with Danni Coy. While the first one looks better, it basically is something for CD's in general. The second one could use some polish (and i wonder if it's distinguishable at small size), but it does indicate that files go on there instead of something else.

So, the second one here.
Anonymous said…
Second one (as already said: all CDs contain only 0 and 1)

Alex
Javi said…
What Fran Christophersen, Edd, Danni Coy and other said.

How would your mother (for example) spot faster the data cd idea?
Irina said…
Number one, hands down.
Ivan Čukić said…
I agree that the 1st isn't the way to go since all CDs are digital devices.

I also agree that the second could use some improvement.
Andrei said…
first one.
ZeD said…
first one.
but, please, make the 1s and the 0s a little darker!
dkrapohl said…
definetely the first
The second.

I really like the "file" icon for a data CD. That's what it us after all; a data cd == a CD with files.

01010101 could also be a video stream..
Anonymous said…
I agree with Ivan even though I think the first one is more visual compelling.
Anonymous said…
I personally like from the look and feel the first one better. However in terms of usability i would say the second one. Two reasons:
1. As someone pointed out 0 and 1 could also be a video / music stream.

2. Most less computer literate people may not understand / interprate 0 and 1 as data streams ... whereas a file icon is more explicit (maybe you could create a group of icons that will display the sort of files one would put on a data CD ... photos, documents etc. )
Anonymous said…
Neither one.

Take the second one, move the Icon to the right and make it bigger.
Anonymous said…
I find the first one nicer, but I am worried about two things:

1. how it will scale down
2. how it will look compared to other cd types: the second one looks like a blank cd with an emblem, so it's probably easy to create other cd types with different emblems. Additionally, you can scale down the cd without scaling down the emblem at the same rate.

For this reason, I think the second one would be more usable, but having a usability test like you are about to have is the best way to find out. I suggest presenting the icon among other cd types: do not ask "what is this icon?" but rather "which of these icons is a data cd?"
Anonymous said…
The first one looks better, but as already hase been said here: binary sequences are on audio-CDs, too. Also scaling the icon is a problem.

So I would choose the second one.

An alternative could be a CD with a package on it (like a compressed file is often represented as a collection of many files with). An Audio-CD instead was a CD with a music note on it.
Anonymous said…
The second one can be for empty CDs, for data cd it would be nice to have folder icon, or even many folder icons.
Anonymous said…
As I scrolled down your blog post and saw the first one I thought: It's about cd icons, obviously. Scrolling down to the second made my mind asking "Is it about data cds?".

So all in all, I find the first one more pretty, the second more intuitive.
Anonymous said…
The second one. It's more immediately associated with files.
pano said…
even if the first one is prettier, I think the second icon is the one, that most people will recognize as Data-CD

Reasons:

The "normal" user may not now what is meant with the ones and the zeros, leaving him with a big question mark.
The second icon on the other hand, has this "file icon" that is widely recognized and also used in other burning apps (e.g. Nero Burning ROM).

I also agree that the second icon may need some rework though. Maybe you could make the "file icon" a bit bigger and make it fade out to the top, just like you did with the binary icon cd.

btw: Great icons :-D
smihael said…
first one is much prettier :)

but second one is easier to understand for people without comp. knowledge, but in this phase is kind a ugly :(

so now i vote for first one; if you improve second i will be definitely for it :)
Anonymous said…
The first one.
Anonymous said…
Definitely the first one.
Anonymous said…
The second one. IMO It may be even more expressive with more "generic file icon" in the bottom part

The first one gives me the idea of "burn a .iso"
Jord said…
First one.
Anonymous said…
The first one looks cool, the second one more "data" :) For this case I prefer the second one.
Anonymous said…
first one
with digits better readable in small sizes
Anonymous said…
Please the first one
Anonymous said…
first one no hesitation
Unknown said…
First is the best.
The second is unclear
Anonymous said…
the first one looks cool
but maybe it would be better to add some more digits on the upper right side also, because in regard to the idea with the digits there is too much blank space
The first one works well imo, except for the question of how it would looks at a small size (but then again the second one would have the same problem I think)

Ok, we all know that every CD is comprised of zero and ones. But it's pretty obvious that just showing that as opposed to music notes or whatever means "data".

In fact, if you're going to be pedantic, you could make the equally silly arguument that calling them "data cd" makes no sense either because audio is also data.
Anonymous said…
first one...
Anonymous said…
first one!

what about making music and videos media similar to that?
Pitazboras said…
While the first one looks nicer, I find second one more relevant.
Anonymous said…
The first one, but I'd like to see a smaller version of the two images.
Anonymous said…
First one
Carlos Martins said…
First one.

Though smaller versions would probably need a bigger "01010" font size to be visible...
Unknown said…
Although I definitely think the first one is prettier it doesn't mean anything to a non-technical person.

The second with a more playful combination of several file/folder icons would work best I think.
Vangelis said…
first one!!
Anonymous said…
A combination of second and first
Owl said…
The first one is prettier, but the second will scale better and means more to laymen.

I say remove some of the {0,1}s and put the icon(s) in their place. Best of both worlds.
Andreas K said…
The first one - but randomize the bit, please ;-)
shredi said…
first one, definitely
Pinheiro said…
Ok after reading all of the comments you guys kinda explained all the problems I had, if from a tectnical POV 10101011 meens nothing, (all cds are made of 1010101) its kinda visualy more obvius than the document one...
I will improve bowth ones and put them in the test, also will include a couple more based on the coments here...
Francois said…
First one is not bad, but ALL CDs store data in binary format, right? :) So to me it means more "digital" (opposite to analogic) than "data". But I'm a computer guy...

Second one means more "blank CD" to me, with its empty sheet.
The first one, surely. And ocngratulations by the awesome work on the Oxygen icons and the KDE project!
mgh said…
Eu, não é por nada, a sério, mas tenho 17 anos e estou no secundário e tenho medo da reacção do meu prof de inglês se olhasse p/ um texto destes.

" ... on the K3B icons were I will also ask this question I'm about to ask. "

é mesmo were? e que tal where? não sei, mas tentei ler várias vezes com were e não faz lá mt sentido.

e logo depois: ""Data cd" witch of this 2 is more a "DATA CD"? "
Não, a sério, este um dos erros mais frequentes dos miudos de 7º e 8º ano. acontece que os "what, who, wHich" são todos "wh question". a sério que são, e não é por mal mas há tanto pessoal que não portugues a ler isto que o texto pode, sei lá, estar a dar uma má impressao ou imagem dos portugueses e concerteza que voce sabe escrever todas estas palavras.

Só peço, um bocadinho de mais cuidado, sff? Obrigado.
(e desculpe estar a comentar apenas para o emendar mas achei que se justificasse)
Anonymous said…
Oh no! What have you done? This was surely just a test from Nuno to see if his readers can be trusted with questions like that.

The second option is clearly the better one and all of you have voted for the first one. Now he will never trust us again.
Anonymous said…
I might sound stupid here, but.

SECOND ONE!

Did you know that the average computer user does not know that the computer stores stuff in 0 and 1's ?

But the second one needs the little file icon bigger, or perhaps 2-3 of them overlapping? (But still biger)
Anonymous said…
Personally, I love 1. The point of the previous comment may unfortunatelly be valid, though: will everyone be able to make the association "01010101"=="data"?

(If I were to choose, I'd still go for the first one, though. It's not as if we don't have text descriptions of the icons;))
Jens said…
Second one
Fri13 said…
Second one... no doupt of it.

No one avarage user know the 10101010101 stuff. It just look as effect for them.

And the bad thing is, even the music or video is on 10101001 format as well.

The "10101010" means everything on the computer. So it should not be used if not meant to be mark the computer data itself... all kind data.

The second icon, where is the file sheet. Looks much better. But for that, I would even place typical KDE4 Oxygen empty file icon, not just retancle.

10101010 does look nice, but it has no meaning, what is important on icon.

And the 10101001 is harder to do for smaller icon, not just those 512px sized.

If you want to keep it more clear, keep the second one and you can use note key or DVD logo to mark different medias easier way.

In my humble opion too is that when ever I see 10101010... I always first think binary. That is at least the thing what everyone get teached on basic mathematic lessons on school.
Anonymous said…
2.

Makes it more clear there are going to be files with a filesystem on it.
Fabio Locati said…
first one is awesome :)
The 2nd one.

You can see the blank mimetype icon on it in a split-second, while in the other one you have to look at the detail work to see the binary bits. And on top od that any CD has a binary image, whatever its contents. Both these features make the second one seem too generic for my taste.

The idea of a good iconset IMHO is that it the moment you see the icon you know what it is and what it does - and I think the 2nd one does that perfectly. (It might need some tweaking, but the idea is great).
djenhar said…
number 1!
Anonymous said…
First one.
drvoodoo said…
i prefer the first one personally, bur what's about the non technical users? Not everybody knows that computers "think" in 1 and 0s
Anonymous said…
First one
Manuel Padilha said…
No matter how l33t the first one is, the second is the one that gets the message across.

Plus, I imagine this "Data CD" is somehow defined by contrast with a "Music CD", so it might be helpful to know which icon you're considering for it.
Enrico Ros said…
two, or 1+2
Anonymous said…
first one is good
but how about using not only '1' and '0' but also special symbols in columns and give a look like the starting sequence from the matrix movie
just thinking
Unknown said…
Undoubtedly, the first one! I like the idea, the concept behind it a lot more! As some other people have already pointed out, something around that idea, would be nice, but for me, it's really good as it is now!

Thanks for the good work!
Paul said…
first one. the icon on the second one is too ambiguous
Anonymous said…
second one...

yes, music is made of 1 and 0's ... ut music is also data... but the second one is better, though i would add an folder icon and put the current file icon inside of it...
Anonymous said…
Second!
Anonymous said…
The second one is more meaningful, but the first one looks better. I would say, the second one, but looking more like the first with lots of document icons fading into the background.

The disk bit is the (top level) folder, but now you want to know what it contains: music, film/video, photos, application program, operating system, documents, mixed, and so on.

The primary goal of an icon is to look different from all the others making it easily distinguishable. The secondary goals, might be: is not to use a confusing metaphor; is to be visually pleasing; to be usable at various sizes; to be part of a theme/dialect.
Unknown said…
First one does irt for me
Unknown said…
first one.
Lucas Sallovitz said…
The first one is nicer but the second may be more clear for someone who isn't familiar with the computer's internal representation, besides the icon gives you the chance to use diferent ones for different kinds of cd. Specifically I would try to make it look like there's multiple files in the cd not just one.
Anonymous said…
First one...
Alex Wauck said…
The first one. Definitely.
gskbyte said…
First one with the 2nd one's icon in a corner.
Anonymous said…
I'm sorry I didn't read all the comments but I saw that my only concern is in some of them, too. What I haven't seen is if someone propsoed anything, which I'll do.

First, my vote: first one for sure (as almost everyone else)!

However, scaled down (think at minimum of 32x32, but I'd consider 22x22, too), the numbers will be lines.

So, I propose to make the height of each three lines the height of one line. That would leave you with a bit more than 3 lines of numbers (counting form those I can see, counting with the first fading in and the last fading out), possibly big enough for scaling down still readable.

Hope to help with both, vote and proposal.

And keep up the always great work!
Michael said…
WTF's with your poll up there? 21(1%) voted "Give it up!" and overall 1088 (100%) votes have been made.

BTW I'd suggest you come up with a better Icon.
How would someone barely familiar with the concepts of computer science identify the binary construction as data?
Anonymous said…
Actually, another idea, for the case you need it for more than one type of media (that is, not just data CDs but DVDs and Blu-ray), you could place the lines wtih the numbers (big as I suggested, so they scale down nicely) at the top half of the disk, leaving the bottom clear for their logo. And I suggest it to be as big as almost the whole bottom half (from the gray circle around the hole 'till the almost the end), also to scale down ok (no matter using official logos or made by yourself - that discussion of blu-ray/dvd/whatever trademark). That way, disks could get distinguished from each other rather than just from color (which, thinking of usability, is bad for visually impaired people).
Anonymous said…
first one is very nice, but computer layman won't get it and computer connoceurs will think it doesn't make sense because all cds are binary.

So I'd suggest the picture of the first one with a superimposed drawing on the left side, evoquing a (dolphin) home folder listing with expandable folders option turned on (to make the group of icons cohesive) so you see a couple of folders and files.

I think this would be a winner.

continuação de Bom trabalho
e boa sorte :)
Iuri said…
First one. But I would like to see small versions to decide better.
Pinheiro said…
@ Michael I don't do the math in the poll sent your "WTF" to bloger :)
Do you have another suggestion to what I should put in the icon that would be better?
Anonymous said…
Alright, thinking of my mom looking at the icons (despite of she knowing - as pretty much everybody else in the world - that data is represented by 0s and 1s in digital equipments), she wouldn't possibly realize it means a data media, rather than a music or video one.

So I add to everything I suggested what gskbyte said, but with two files, like copy icon.

As long as video and music medias get film (or related) and note icons, respectivly (for example), they'd all be well known.

To sum up, the 1 0 lines are dismissable but they're really nice! The rest, I mantain what I suggested 'till now.
Michael said…
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to offend you =)

Why not just label it?
Something like Data Disc/Music Disc et cetera would put a better meaning to it, wouldn't it?
does not matter said…
The second, because it indicates that the binary data on the CD are files. The first doesn't make sense, CDs are digital media anyway. How would you make (especially the first one) smaller? Is the distinction that its a data CD recognizable?
Anonymous said…
Visually number one is far more compelling. The very different rectangle and circle combine poorly in the second one.

What do the 0's and 1's read? Secret message?
Anonymous said…
This must be the first blog posting even where you get away with "first" as a fi-po.
Anonymous said…
After all, no matter what you're gonna store on a disc, it's encoded as ones and zeros anyway. So this might not be a valid differentiator for both, a hacker and mainstream user.
Unknown said…
i like the first one better but you cant see the binary if you donwsize it to like 32x32 px
Ricard Marxer said…
For me the answer depends on how the "audio CD" will look like and how does it scale to small sizes.

Even though the first one looks nice, I can't imagine how the Audio CD would look like so that both stay "style consistent".

On the other hand, the second one with a bit of work on the file emblem could look very nice too, and it would open the door to other type of CD formats. Furthermore I'm guessing it scales better.
Unknown said…
2, with many docs, the one over the other....
Anonymous said…
1 as its the second one looks like the system forgot to link a picture there -.-
Anonymous said…
The first one. No choice! :-)
Unknown said…
the second
on very small icons, the first one would look weird
pilpilon said…
the first one
pilpilon said…
And, well, CDs are NOT containing zeroes and ones, really.
Unknown said…
first one, but the 10101010 should be darker!
Anonymous said…
1 :)
The first one ;)
Unknown said…
the second one!
Stephen said…
2, the first option will look bad at lower sizes. What happens when it gets so small only 2 numbers are visible. While it looks great big, i think the second one will hold its form the best
Fri13 said…
@pilpilon "And, well, CDs are NOT containing zeroes and ones, really."

Well, the CD's and other optical media does contain zeroes and ones. The burners laser will burn holes to the surface and when the drive laser then reads it, it gets ON/OFF, in other words, 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 readings from it.

There is no difference does disk have sound or video or just document files. They are all binary on the disk. Thats why the first one is bad.
FrenchHope said…
The first one !!!!
Unknown said…
I think the second one is better, because the paper represents a data cd better than one's and zero's. The metaphore is more universal, clear, symple and familiar for the users, because the dates in the mayor of OS are represented by the icon of a paper.
david said…
The first one it's nice but the second one it's more understandable (useable).
Tabris said…
The first one :)
Anonymous said…
First one. It may not bee "correct", but it is definitely more obvious (less thinking required :D) than the second one.
Andy Crouch said…
First one with a doubt.
xgoan said…
I like the first one but I think that the 0/1s are not clear
schrdlu said…
schrdlu reckons 1 will prob be better
Claudio said…
The first one.
hallowname said…
got an answer huh? :)

first for me too.

+law:med
+Zed
+Carlos Martins
Anonymous said…
The second one.
Unknown said…
first one
The first one.
ZcMander said…
2., The first one is way too messy. Besides paper doesn't present data-cd to me in anyway. So it might be better to leave empty.
Nekmo said…
The second is more elegant :)
Anonymous said…
First one
Anonymous said…
2
When I see 1s and 0s I thing "binary". When I think "binary" I think "executable". When I think "executable + CD/DVD" I think install/live CD/DVD.

So I say 2nd (but make the file icon bigger).
Hi, i'm really interested in this post...I want to know more about "I have a question!".

Thats exactly what I was searching in this time...

Thanks!!!

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