Change the quill icon to a pencil icon for Compose a new message

[eholtmann]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

In the Messages section of Canvas, the way to compose a new message is to click on the icon of a quill. Some students don't even know what a quill is. And several of my students though the quill icon was a picture of a leaf.

A pencil is a standard icon on the web for "edit." Let's make the button easy to find by changing the quill to a pencil. (See attached files for examples.)

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13988-canvas-production-release-notes-2018-01-27 .

[arking]

Hi Alice, for lots of the software we use, I can definitely see needing to make our own tutorials (and we do!) but for Canvas, I find their support pages to be more than adequate for sending our users to. I'm also curious (I know, off topic) but how much viewership do your videos get? We stopped making them because no one was watching more then a few seconds of them.

[frederick_smith]

Alice, with all due respect, this is about all students - nationwide - being able to easily communicate with their instructors and each other when using the Canvas LMS.  Personally, as an instructor dedicated to my students' success, I am willing to redo any tutorials and work for the greater good of ALL students.  That's the role of an educator.

[hblucher]

I never noticed myself. It looks nothing like a quill. I am a little sad that people don't know what a quill is. But nonetheless it doesn't even look like a quill, and is definitely a leaf. A pencil is a better choice. There are better quill icons out there, but the issue still remains that people don't know what it is. Have to stay up with the trends. 

I agree with the other statements that a "+" or paper sign makes more sense even than a pencil. Since the pencil often actually means edit. Perhaps we could combine the ideas and have a paper or envelope with a pencil on it. 

[rlbrown21]

I cant agree more.  We get asked regularly "why a rocket ship?"  We simply say "ask Canvas". 

[vrondel56]

I vote to change it too,  it definitely does not look like a quill are a leaf to me. I'm old school I go with the pencil please change it to the pencil.

[Stef_retired]

I've been following this conversation with great interest, and hope that no one missed  @Renee_Carney ‌'s comment upthread (link is here). Our design team is on it!

[llawrence10]

A pencil usually means "edit," not "compose." But the current icon does look like a leaf, and that makes no sense to me. How about just a button that says "NEW"?

[llawrence10]

All three of these icons intuitively say "compose a new message" to me. Good ideas, Heather.

[llawrence10]

Thanks goodness I was not the only one who couldn't make sense of the rocket ship for quizzes. And Tracey is a LOT more tech-savvy than I am, so if it didn't make sense to her . . . !

[vshank]

Late to the conversation, but I echo everyone's feelings about the quill/leaf thing. It's amusing to me that queries about changing language like "module" were dismissed because of universal design, but then the icons certainly don't follow that philosophy. Looking forward to seeing what happens.