Widgetopia

user's call

from Alex King's site

These are simple enough that I think you can guess what they do. I'm not sure the left/right column placer is required, but kinda nice if you have strong feelings about such matters. The font size changer is very nice indeed.

(and for those who are following, drupal explosions continue. drupal doesn't allow multi-delete, and i had a bad import where the comments were all on the wrong entries. so i deleted my mysql database and recreated it. things are not pretty right now.)

teensy

found on Common Craft

Dude, these are some teensy icons. Some have lost coherence and have become smooshy mud, some have visual coherence, but are not communicating meaning. In fact, I'd say only community and 'me' have a fairly decent 1:1 between image and meaning.

For example: lightbulb is a standard representation for "ideas" yet here it represents "Technology in Plain English." "Related Miscellany" is represented by what looks like a tiny flowchart? Uncertain what the weblog symbol is: I'm guessing a printer or a plate of cheese. I'm hoping for cheese, as I do not think there are enough cheeselogs out there.

Sorry if this is a bit snippy, but this is a case where icons add nothing but noise, IMO.

(p.s. sorry for the lack of activity, i'm spending buckets of time in Drupal. also may explain usability snippiness. Drupal: powerful but befuddling. oh, but so powerful.)

A guide to services

found Google's guide to their services

Widgetopia reader Dunstan points out a page of Google's, highlighting their services. The page design itself is a odd choice-- it seems like a name/short description version would be easier to understand, faster to use and faster loading. But the icons are unquestionably charming, though of varying levels of effectiveness. A Linux penguin isn't exactly the logical choice for special searches, but the translate icon is the very model of eloquence.

fishy

found on Beetlebrow

I suppose if you did have a fish machine, the second to last icon would be the right symbol for it. This makes all the icons, while not always traditional, intuitable: from the left, home, mail, copyright, fish machine, search.

They do break a rule that makes me crazy-- though they all look essentially alike, they all behave differently: while home is not bad, as the addition of the arrow to icon suggests a modified behavior, email opens your native email program, copyright has no click action, but shows the copyright on rollover, and the last two open dhtml widgets in the upper right hand corner. To standardize it would be simple: just make all the buttons (except home) open in the widget area. Set expectations: meet expectations.

(I'm still puzzling over the fish machine, which appears to be a slot machine of sorts. or is it merely a red herring....)

thanks, angie, for the pointer to this quirky and elegant set of site tools.

agreable

Found on Banlieusardises

A simple and agreable navigation schema: secondary areas as links above, key areas in a demi-tab arrangement, and a breadcrumb just in case. Translation button probably would have been better off as text than a squished image, but it's visible and located well. and omnipresent.

minimalizism

found on the Wall Street Journal online

The bare minimum: print and email. Print is more abstract than ever.

at the foot of the article, we see the tools repeated. Oddly email is not included. This makes no sense to me-- when are you most likely to share an article: before you've read it or after you've judged its value?

Order reprints is in the right location, though the icon seems to be just for the sake of being an icon (the merc does a better job by using a icon that reminds you why you need to get permission).

Print has been retitled and more clearly explains what the button will do. I've often wondered about the "print" label. I have seen a printbutton occasionally trigger a print action, and been utterly unready for it. The New Yorker, below, also goes for the clearer label.

dance this

from The New Yorker

The quirkily sinuous and nearly abstract "print me" is worth noting. Icons feel like The New Yorker... black, white and red feels very print. Too bad about the muddy gradiant, but I supose it's what gives the "print me" its wiggle.