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 .

[Renee_Carney]

Thank you to everyone that has commented and voted.  We know this seems like a simple fix, and technically it is.  The more difficult part of this conversation is agreement in design.  Even this thread demonstrates how difficult that can be.  We want you to know that we have brought this thread to the attention of our designers responsible for the icon set.  We'll post here when we know more.

[buellj]

I fail to understand why some find the feather icon to be unsatisfactory. I should be sorry to see it go. I expect someone to soon have the temerity to suggest that we give up compelling our students to study Cicero. 

[thompsli]

I've started referring to it as a "magic feather" when showing students how to send messages.

(I would also like this changed. I'm concerned that this new icon set in general is trying too hard to be "unique", which is actually not a good goal for an icon set. I prefer icons that look pretty much like people expect icons to look over ones that create a "unique" experience on each website, particularly since Canvas has changed them multiple times in the past year so it's hard for people to keep their locally-produced training materials up to date. I'm more frustrated with the "rocket ship" than I am with this one, but this is probably the second most common point of confusion right now.)

[frederick_smith]

John, the fact that many of us who have advanced degrees in the arts (I hold a Ph.D. in Musicology) did not recognize that the "leaf icon" is actually a quill speaks for itself - if we didn't realize this, how can we expect our students to?  The navigation of the LMS needs to be as clear and straightforward as possible to aid in student success.  The challenges of a course need be in its content, not in creating a new e-mail.  No one is suggesting that we stop challenging our students with course content, whether it be Cicero, Handel, or Picasso, but we should not expect them to recognize an erudite icon (based primarily in Western culture, mind you) in order to use the LMS.

[frederick_smith]

Agreed, Linnea.  I have long thought that Canvas is trying to be too "cute" with their icon sets.  As I stated above, the LMS needs to be clear and straightforward.  Its icons should not add an unnecessary layer of complexity to a course!

[thompsli]

I originally went to graduate school in Computer Science and Engineering, with an intended focus in Human-Computer Interaction (after undergraduate work with heavy emphases in both Computer Science and Communication) before switching fields to mathematics education when I realized that what I really wanted to do was work with middle school students, and the only reason I know it's a quill is because I follow comments in the Canvas Community so I know what they "meant to do". (It looks like a leaf to me too.)

I may be biased toward thinking those are relevant sorts of fields for Canvas to look into, but have they maybe considered consulting with someone in the field of either HCI or Communication who has done some research into icon sets and what kinds of visual cues are easily recognized by typical people from various cultures? I'm guessing that someone has, in fact, done research into this (probably quite a few someones).

[frederick_smith]

Great question/suggestion, Linnea.  That's what I was thinking when I mentioned that the quill icon is based on Western culture.  Of course, given that many of us from Western culture didn't recognize it, how can we expect international students from non-Western cultures to recognize it?  A universal icon set would make much better sense to me!

[tdelillo]

I know we're focused on the leaf/quill, but while we're discussing icon confusion can I just mention that I haven't finished being befuddled by the quiz rocket ship? I had another faculty member ask me today why the space shuttle was in his gradebook...

[buellj]

What effrontery sir! I demand satisfaction sir! Let me just fetch my vest of many buttons...

[thompsli]

I doubt a truly "universal" icon set is possible (there's that Comm major piping up again about cultural context!), but we could at least come closer than the leaf and rocketship model that Canvas currently is using.