Ask HN: Why is the save icon still represented by a floppy disk?
I was teaching my daughter how to save her work, when I realized that she wouldn't know what a floppy disk is.
What'd be a better representation of a save operation?
What'd be a better representation of a save operation?
Since explicitly saving a document very rarely creates value for users and introduces several ways for them to fail with their tasks ("What is this file system metaphor of which you speak?", "I forgot to save this and then closed my browser. Is that bad?", "I just clobbered the old file I was working with. Is that bad?"), I'm a fan of just doing away with it entirely.
I have occasionally gotten emails from people asking where the Save button is in my web applications. Many of my users seem to expect things to work like Gmail/Facebook though: you do your thing, and then your thing stays done, even without having to call your nephew who is good with computers to make sure the thing on the disk does not get eaten by a virus on your Googles.
Maybe that lack of information in the interface is what is making them email you about it.
-record/disc (as the round image is generally universal, even inside floppies)
-page (as in a document, as in to record something)
-a red circle (talk about universal, just grey it out when no changes are detected)