UI Iconography



  • I am making a web app that does multiple choice exams. One thing a user might want to do is "mark" a question, so that he knows to go back to it later.

    What kind of icon should I use for that? I've seen stars getting used for that purpose. But is it "accepted"? Would it be "clear" that's what it's for?


  • β™Ώ (Parody)

    Maybe a stopwatch?



  • A bookmark?


  • sekret PM club

    An exclamation point?

    Bonus points if you use an interrobang.



  • Challenge accepted: to find a place to insert an interrobang into the UI of my current project


  • sekret PM club

    Error messages. Just make a giant interrobang fill up half the screen when it borks.



  • Where's the fun in that if I can take an easy way out?


  • sekret PM club

    Oh no, that's just the added bonus. You still hide them in other places, but then add in the giant-interrobang-of-doom for errors.



  • This particular project is for paying customers. They would not approve of me doing such I feel. But I can sneak it into an Easter Egg somewhere.



  • Just force them to go back and complete it before they submit. You control the app, correct?



  • No, that's stupid.



  • fa-bookmark



  • Yup, that's what I went with. I liked the exclamation point idea, too. But this is more "mark" like.


  • sekret PM club

    @Captain said:

    No, that's stupid.

    *grabs popcorn*



  • πŸ“Œ?

    I think most icons should work if you add a tooltip or other textual description.


  • BINNED

    You have to remember that anything @blakeyrat says about UI design is only a reflection of his personal preferences and has no necessary relation to any accepted design principles.



  • Or in this case, it's realizing a computer isn't a piece of paper, and you can do things with a computer UI that go above and beyond what you can do with a piece of paper.

    But hey whatever. Heap on the abuse. Pile it on. Why not.


  • β™Ώ (Parody)

    But there are valid reasons to not answer test questions regardless of UI.



  • Okay, you convinced me. I'll get right on that. I'll just skip ahead to Web 4.0. Should the problems infiniscroll, too? I bet I can have music videos playing in the background with this HTML5 thing.


  • BINNED

    @Captain said:

    Should the problems infiniscroll, too?

    wadayathink matey! Ofcourse! And people can like the questions?



  • You should allow them to bookmark each question multiple times. More bookmarks == more important. Just don't break the bookmark counter.



  • I did actually consider a rating, but the test app should really mirror what the customer will use on test day. The official exam app doesn't have that feature.



  • Why do you need marking mechanics? User can just skip the question and don't do anything. Then later, if they want to go back, they should have an option to filter out completed questions, so that only uncompleted are shown.



  • So you need an icon but you are not sure what would work best?

    Look over at:

    http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/icons/

    See if any of those jump out at you.

    Could be useful to others too.



  • @cartman82 said:

    Why do you need marking mechanics? User can just skip the question and don't do anything. Then later, if they want to go back, they should have an option to filter out completed questions, so that only uncompleted are shown.

    Oh quick, roll out the mockery brigade!

    Or, let me guess, you only mock that idea when it comes from Blakeyrat.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @fatbull said:

    πŸ“Œ?

    That must be the picture of Sir Not Appearing In This Font…


  • β™Ώ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    Or, let me guess, you only mock that idea when it comes from Blakeyrat.

    Are you replying to a different post than you quoted? He was questioning the OP, not mocking @blakeyrat the great and powerful.



  • Whiner.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    Hmm?



  • I'm trying to keep the UI similar to another UI. Some differences are acceptable, but major changes in the workflow are not (since part of the point of the UI is to practice using the other UI)



  • Ok, then do the bookmark thing. It makes the most sense.

    @boomzilla said:

    Are you replying to a different post than you quoted? He was questioning the OP, not mocking @blakeyrat the great and powerful.

    Blakey means I said similar thing, but nobody jumped me. He's saying you guys are taking him for granted and that he can take an occasional slapping, but then you need to buy him flowers and say you're sorry and that you love him and promise it will never happen again.

    ... at least that's what I read into it. But I might be projecting...



  • bookmark

  • β™Ώ (Parody)

    @cartman82 said:

    Blakey means I said similar thing, but nobody jumped me.

    Oh, yeah, I guess it's too nuanced for him to notice that you didn't say, "force the users to do it."

    @cartman82 said:

    But I might be projecting.

    In my experience, shoulder aliens are right more than they're wrong when it comes to blakey.



  • [size=40]πŸ’©πŸ•΄πŸ–•πŸ–”πŸ πŸ˜»πŸ˜Ώ[/size]


  • BINNED

    @cartman82 said:

    Why do you need marking mechanics? User can just skip the question and don't do anything. Then later, if they want to go back, they should have an option to filter out completed questions, so that only uncompleted are shown.

    No, I like marking answers. That way I can at the end I can revisit question where I have doubts and don't have to look through the questions where I'm sure.



  • @Captain said:

    What kind of icon should I use for that

    You could use an icon of an old shoe, or a bottle maybe.

    You may also not drip-feed information into the thread, so that people can actually do something better than shout random misinformed things.



  • @dhromed said:

    You could use an icon of an old shoe, or a bottle maybe.

    You may also not drip-feed information into the thread, so that people can actually do something better than shout random misinformed things.

    May I reuse that quote elsewhere for smacking people upside the head when they give shitty support requests?



  • Be sure to include a copy of the creative commons license with every use.



  • @dhromed said:

    Be sure to include a copy of the creative commons license with every use.

    Which CC licence?



  • The one with pictures of shetland ponies.



  • I'm pretty sure my question was direct and to the point. Evidence:

    UI Iconography

    I am making a web app that does multiple choice exams. One thing a user might want to do is "mark" a question, so that he knows to go back to it later.

    What kind of icon should I use for that? I've seen stars getting used for that purpose. But is it "accepted"? Would it be "clear" that's what it's for?



  • DSA Driving Theory test uses a "Flag" to "Flag" the question for later review.

    "Flag"



  • @Captain said:

    I'm pretty sure my question was direct and to the point.

    I know.



  • Then what's your point? I asked a specific question. Most of the responses answered that specific question. One was a terrible suggestion to force users into a different workflow. Another suggested a different workflow (though it was offered constructively). I answered that suggestion with the 'why not'. And now you're trolling.

    So, again, what's your point?



  • @Captain said:

    One was a terrible suggestion to force users into a different workflow.

    You're talking about Blakey's validation suggestion? That was not terrible, it was great. You responded with "no that's stupid".

    Hmkay.

    Then several posts down you casually revealed something about keeping a consistent user experience. So you might have mentioned that up front. Since validating HTML forms before submitting is such an obvious thing to do, it makes sense to explicitly say why you're not doing it.

    But I guess that's stupid.



  • Not really. It was a bad idea, irrelevant to the question (at best), and offered in an non-constructively aggressive fashion. I also explicitly said why I want marking semantics: Because the user might want to mark questions for later.

    Then several posts down you casually revealed something about keeping a consistent user experience. So you might have mentioned that up front. Since validating HTML forms before submitting is such an obvious thing to do, it makes sense to explicitly say why you're not doing it.

    Who said I'm not? "Wrong" is not "invalid". It's just wrong, and will be scored that way.



  • @Captain said:

    One was a terrible suggestion to force users into a different workflow.

    Maybe if you spent a few seconds explaining why you believe that is so terrible instead of just calling it terrible, and then misreading Dhromed for about 3 posts, we'd be able to move past it.

    You have a series of questions. Users have to answer the questions. Users might want to skip some and go back later. So why is it so bad to have a "workflow" where users can skip the questions, and then are shown them again at the end of the series? That way, you don't need a fucking icon, just a button labeled "skip". And you don't need to worry about students forgetting to go back and finish them because, HEY GUESS WHAT, computers can be pretty smart and they can do pretty smart things like ensuring that doesn't happen.



  • @Captain said:

    I also explicitly said why I want marking semantics: Because the user might want to mark questions for later.

    You're solving a symptom, not a problem. The problem is, "how do I get the user to answer all the questions?" But that's not the question you're asking. The question you're asking is, "what fucking icon do I use?"

    Back your thought up a few levels of abstraction here, and actually think about the actual problem you're trying to solve. Ignore the icon thing, that's bullshit. Now when you ask about the actual problem you're trying to solve you might find that your tiny little brain, cleared of all the bullshit about wine bottles and shoes, might be able to... gasp... BUILD BETTER SOFTWARE?

    Nah! Why advance the art? Just add a fucking icon! If users click it and forget to fill out the question, fuck them! That's the right attitude to have: fuck users.

    I guess the implicit question I'm asking here is, when you say, "users might want to mark questions they skipped for later", my response is, "why the fuck should they have to? Why doesn't the software just do that for them, automatically, with no effort on their part?"



  • They're my users. I know what they need in this product a lot more than you do.

    And what they need is a UI that matches the workflow of the UI they will be using when they stop taking practice tests and take the real test. Iconography is a specific question with a specific answer.

    I guess the implicit question I'm asking here is, when you say, "users might want to mark questions they skipped for later", my response is, "why the fuck should they have to? Why doesn't the software just do that for them, automatically, with no effort on their part?"

    Okay, fair enough. I can answer that calmly.

    Because a third party offers a computer based professional exam. And if they're going to study for the exam with me, they need to be familiar with the computer based testing workflow. Which I don't control.

    Do you understand now? I'm doing the window dressing and you're talking about changing the underlying model because you don't like the model. Not that you even understand it. And that is why your suggestion was stupid.



  • @Captain said:

    Because a third party offers a computer based professional exam. And if they're going to study for the exam with me, they need to be familiar with the computer based testing workflow. Which I don't control.

    Ok let's assume for a minute that the format of the test is actually important, and not just the content. Even though that's the fucking dumbest thing I've ever heard.

    I think Dhromed's (and now my) general point was: WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU DICK!

    Hey, you know what's better than explaining the problem you're trying to solve? Typing the sentence: "No, that's stupid."


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