In Defense of the Floppy Disk Save Symbol | Hacker News Reader

In Defense of the Floppy Disk Save Symbol

connortomas.com

8 pointsoseibonsu7 comments

I had been in favor of replacing the save icon until I saw the branch discussion a few days ago, and seeing that even the best of them weren't a more logical choice than an antiquated piece of technology no longer in use. The author's arguments pretty much cemented by conversion to "meh, let's just keep using the floppy." And really if people don't seem to have a problem with gears for settings and magnifying glasses for search what's all the fuss over the floppy for save?

The two example cited are actually still in wide use: The cog is in analogue clock, engine and other mechanical device that have mechanical parts, and the magnifying glass can be bought from your local store (and without the handle it is pretty much what any other optical device is on a very basic level).

The floppy disk on the other hand ... well sure we still use magnetic medium to save data on a daily basis without even thinking about it, but there might be only a couple generation that would have knowingly handled such a device. It makes sense for them. But for our parents and children? It is quite an abstraction that 'saving' needs to have a symbol on its own pretty much like the 'on/off' switch does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_symbol.

I'd agree with that. But why couldn't the abstraction for "save" be the floppy disk symbol?

Just pretend the floppy disk never existed, and that the floppy-save symbol is just a completely abstract symbol. Doesn't it still work? As long as a symbol is unique, easy to identify, and easy to reproduce, it does its job. I'd argue that floppy symbol has stuck around because, on a purely visual level, it's hard to beat.

I will argue with that: The floppy disk on has grip on our mind, because we, as the user of the medium, have stuck with it for a couple of decades. When I am saying we, I am talking about computer users in the science/business world roughly during the last 30 years (god forbid there are still people using this thing today).

If one take the idea of saving outside the computing world (meaning where the computer is used on a daily basis), then I see two choices for the representation: a bank safe as the old age mean to save (money or valuable in this case) or a folder for document (dead tree medium are not going to die any time soon). I think that a study needs to be done among non computing educated people to understand better what is their mental (pictural) representation of the action of saving is.

All I am saying is that the floppy disk is pretty much a cultural centric representation of the action of saving valuable information for later retrieval.

I explored the possibility of using a bank safe as a replacement symbol in the original piece. A bank safe is very difficult to represent symbolically, particularly at the scale of a small icon, so I think we can probably rule that out. A folder symbol is an even worse candidate, as folders are already used to symbolically represent levels in a hierarchical file structure.

Any replacement for the floppy would need to be immediately recognisable and not already tied symbolically to another concept. My argument, simply, is that I don't think there's anything better. The floppy is a unique shape and conceptually tied only to "saving". The effort required to move away from a commonly-used symbol isn't trivial and I just don't think there's much to be gained.

> ... pretty much a cultural centric representation of the action of saving valuable information for later retrieval.

Surely one could make the same arguments about bank safes and paper folders, to a certain extent?

I agree. It also makes a good topic of conversation with the younger generations and can be used in teaching as a starter for computer history. It's a link to the past, a symbol in the true sense that represents an entire era before computing went mainstream. It's a tribute to the folks that made computing what it is now and I believe should be kept as a Save symbol in reminder of all those achievements. Besides all that, it looks awesome!

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