I can't really recognize the time aspect. I don't think that the clock (or the clock-like thing on the right) should be part of the vault. I'd prefer a seperate layer over or under the vault showing a clock. Or a seperate clock connected to the vault via some wires. The vault looks really good though!
It's definitely better then the previous one but...how about changing the clock with a calendar? :o)
Maybe it will be easier for users to identify the application that way!
Best, Luís
juan font said…
Try with a sand watch instead the analog clock ;)
Anonymous said…
It looks nice, but I think it is the wrong metaphor - safes have time-locks so that they can only be opened during banking hours.
You are trying to express a big UNDO or like browser history or captain's log. Perhaps have a translucent cut out in the safe showing the saved dated contents. Or a diagonal split icon [\) vault one side and old/frozen files or time/date element on the other.
@FrankUndFrei yeah :( think i will have to try somthing like that or like Luís Miguel Silva sudgested
@Dread Knight a more realistic prespective makes it bad as an icon there are certain angles one should avoid wen making iconslike close to vercical or horizontal ones. A valve as a certain low tech/retro feling to it that im not sure is apropriate for this ...
@juan font sand waches are incredibly hard to make couse of the glass reflexions and the sand texture :(.
Anonymous said…
Perhaps you could combined the vault with a big arrow turned to the left. This arrow could be similar to the "previous" icon in many kde apps (konqueror, kate...). The arrow turned to the left also suggest the idea of going back in the time.
Also think the perspective thing makes the "handle" and its shadow look quite odd and distracting - maybe it works when viewing it at a smaller scale, but the way it is - it feels "strange".
I like the vault, but what if it is open and shows some sort of cartridge that displays the day of week or so?
Anonymous said…
There have been some other good suggestions here, but I'll add in mine too.
Maybe it would be best to combine both the handle and the clock. The clock could be centered on the safe and (visually) act as both the handle/opener metaphor and the clock metaphor.
jamms said…
I think it's nice looking, but agree with Anonymous and FrankUndFrei, like the very, very, good Korgac icon there are two distinct metaphor components to the icon. Of the two, Time and Vault, am I wrong in thinking that time is the more important? The, "I know what that is at a glance.", component suffers a bit with the current, very attractive, timevault icon.
What about placing a clock down to the left with the undo-swirl (same style as currently on the safe) around the clock?
clock placement about the same as with your korgac icon ...
Jacob said…
What if... Decrease depth of the safe and replacing the timer (clock) with something that look like a bicycle codelock , but with month date time instead of 0-9 digits.
Thinking month date time displayed as measuring tape (as vertical wheels) with colored segments (sections) on each tape(wheel).The wheels "cutting through the safe" thus reentering under the safe.
Maybe the year could be displayed as a good old counter to the left of the wheels...
Gona give it a rest for today after inskscape crached one me :( (yeah I should know save your work)
I'M defnetly goin to keep the safe, and put a calandar thing up in front....
Btw details are nice people but they should not be as important that wen they dont work in small sizes the icon loses its meening. So the trick is to do styf that actualy is recognisable by the overal shape.
Anonymous said…
the clock remembers me on this one here; but yours looks real great! I'd remove everything and just let the clock - to keep real simple!
why not take a timeline to represent the ... uhm ... time? kinda like a horizontal scrollbar, where you can take the "now" and pull it back in time.
Anonymous said…
In reponse to the last anon:
Interestingly, that's actually how I'm working with casual backup browsing. See http://blog.chatonka.com/TimeVault-6.png for an early prototype of the widget. My idea is that it would show up at the bottom of Dolphin, the File Chooser, or anything else that uses kde to show the filesystem (of course it would be optional, or toggled).
Anonymous said…
last anon = NSaibot,
for some reason my openid wasn't accepted :/
feels kinda natural and easy to do, and one could place some funny dates on the timeline :)
Anonymous said…
What about a DeLorean? (:
Anonymous said…
Hmmm... maybe you could make the handle smaller, remove that clock-like thingie and add a "real" clock in the foreground, like you did with the bell in the Korgac-Icon?
Anonymous said…
For me this picture is more something like truecrypt-container (data is save inside) than a backup, which goes back in time (the bigger "idea", which is not yet in the picture) and saves states (vault).
For me a more realistic picture would be a arrow (to the left or into the background and smaller vaults placed on it. Or a vault with such an arrow inside (and of course visible, so its not really "save" :-( )
Wow, you're getting a lot of conflicting feedback on this! Here's some more :)
Because the Time Vault feature is used to save backups over days, weeks, and months, not just over a few hours or minutes, I think that a calendar would be more appropriate than any kind of clock.
Today the great Marco Committed air into svn. Let me just tell you a bit about air, air is a direct descendant of the air wallpaper, I made the first sketch of it the same day I made the wallpaper, and it tries to make the people that found the Oxygen theme "to black" happy. There is no one fits all design, and hopefully with air we can make a wider spectrum of people love KDE. ( in the future I think we can still make a couple more themes) Its still we hope coherent, there are a lot of small details that are shared with oxygen both qt theme as plasma theme. That gives it a feeling of belonging as part of the same experience. We introduced a brand new element in plasma theming, a cropped background the is placed on the plasmoid canvas, (you will see this in the future taken to new heights as it opens a fantasist new set of opportunities to designers). Its transparent, people love transparent stuff :) (we did some effort to avoid contrast issues, but with certain wallp
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.
Air was the wallpaper we introduced in KDE 4.2, but that is just the beginning of something larger. Air is supposed to be different than what Oxygen is, something that tries to appeal to a user base looking for a more "sexy" experience than Oxygen (yeah I know you are out there :) ), but to still have the capability of merging nicely with what we have now. The first thing we started working on was a Plasma theme. Plasma, with it's immense plasticity and a fantastic coder team, allows us to try to push for new ideas. Another extremely cool thing about Plasma is it's ability to become anything you want it to be. So a user in KDE 4.3 might have a desktop that looks like this, if that is his wish, without having to use external software: (click for fullscreen mode) This is an example of how simple one can make a desktop in the 4.3 Plasma once we all manage to get all of our plans working. The new systray speck will help, the work being done on the task bar will allow you
Comments
Something with a watch and a valve attached to it.
Parabéns! :)
The vault looks really good though!
Maybe it will be easier for users to identify the application that way!
Best,
Luís
You are trying to express a big UNDO or like browser history or captain's log. Perhaps have a translucent cut out in the safe showing the saved dated contents. Or a diagonal split icon [\) vault one side and old/frozen files or time/date element on the other.
@Dread Knight a more realistic prespective makes it bad as an icon there are certain angles one should avoid wen making iconslike close to vercical or horizontal ones.
A valve as a certain low tech/retro feling to it that im not sure is apropriate for this ...
@juan font sand waches are incredibly hard to make couse of the glass reflexions and the sand texture :(.
Maybe it would be best to combine both the handle and the clock. The clock could be centered on the safe and (visually) act as both the handle/opener metaphor and the clock metaphor.
Of the two, Time and Vault, am I wrong in thinking that time is the more important?
The, "I know what that is at a glance.", component suffers a bit with the current, very attractive, timevault icon.
clock placement about the same as with your korgac icon ...
Decrease depth of the safe and replacing the timer (clock) with something that look like a bicycle codelock , but with month date time instead of 0-9 digits.
Thinking month date time displayed as measuring tape (as vertical wheels) with colored segments (sections) on each tape(wheel).The wheels "cutting through the safe" thus reentering under the safe.
Maybe the year could be displayed as a good old counter to the left of the wheels...
http://wapedia.mobi/en/tape_measure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Measuring_tape_icon.svg
y y y y M D T
-------- |---|---|---|
--- --- ---
--- --- ---
I'm deeply impressed with your work by the way....
I'M defnetly goin to keep the safe, and put a calandar thing up in front....
Btw details are nice people but they should not be as important that wen they dont work in small sizes the icon loses its meening.
So the trick is to do styf that actualy is recognisable by the overal shape.
http://www.srmuniv.ac.in/comspec/images/512%20Time%20Machine.png
Interestingly, that's actually how I'm working with casual backup browsing. See http://blog.chatonka.com/TimeVault-6.png for an early prototype of the widget. My idea is that it would show up at the bottom of Dolphin, the File Chooser, or anything else that uses kde to show the filesystem (of course it would be optional, or toggled).
for some reason my openid wasn't accepted :/
feels kinda natural and easy to do, and one could place some funny dates on the timeline :)
For me a more realistic picture would be a arrow (to the left or into the background and smaller vaults placed on it. Or a vault with such an arrow inside (and of course visible, so its not really "save" :-( )
Because the Time Vault feature is used to save backups over days, weeks, and months, not just over a few hours or minutes, I think that a calendar would be more appropriate than any kind of clock.