The Read/Unread Icon
One of the changes I’d like to include in the next alpha release of FeedLounge is a better read/unread icon. Right now we use a page with writing on it or blank.
This is pretty weak in several ways, mainly:
- It looks like a checkbox in Windows XP (depending on your theme)
- Its meaning isn’t immediately recognizable
My first version of the icon was an eye - open or closed. The meaning may have been a little better, but Scott thought it looked too freaky. Here is one of the early drafts of it - he’s probably right. 
E-mail programs generally use open and closed envelopes to indicate read/unread status, but there isn’t an equivilent “wrapper” for a feed item. Perhaps we should use a rolled/unrolled newspaper or something like that?
Maybe you folks have some ideas for a great read/unread icon we could use? Feel free to post your ideas and links to your icon designs (16×16 pixels please) in the comments.
I’ve used a bunch of different feed reading apps and probably 80% of them denote read/unread status with bolding rather than an icon.
From your screenshots, it looks like you may already be doing this, with your read/unread icon functioning as a secondary indicator of status.
Let’s cut to the chase though, the icon you are using for read/unread status should really be the favicon of the site you are subscribing to. Using the favicon for this purpose makes so much sense that it is something that’s become near standard in feedreaders across almost all the platforms.
If you’re going to use the favicons, please make it an option I can turn off.
I hate the inconsistent patchy look it leads to.
Yes, bold/unbold is also used as an indicator. However, the icon is also used on a button to allow a user to change an item’s status as read/unread.
I don’t understand how the favicon would be used to show that an item is read or unread or how the user would know to click on it to change that status.
Button issues aside, having a different icon to represent a consistent piece of data doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. And what do we use for sites that don’t have a favicon?
I agree with Michael. I think that spot is best reserved for a favicon. The bold/normal text next to it is enough to signify the read/unread status. If you really wanted the icon to change you could just put the opacity of the favicon down to 30% or something when read.
As far as sites that don’t have favicons, you could just provide a generic favicon (the feedlounge logo perhaps), but the ultimate would be to allow user uploaded/linked favicons. With aggregators taking away so much of the visual identity of a site, it’s nice to have at least one piece of design remaining for the reader to distinguish one site from the other. Even if it is only 16×16.
From these comments, I’m not sure that I’ve made it clear that we’re talking about the read/unread status of an item.
I think having the favicon in the list of feeds wouldn’t be a bad idea, but I’m really not seeing how it would work as a read / unread indicator…
For those not using FL right now, you can see exactly what Alex is talking about in the screenshot here. You’ll notice under the “View” section that the first button is depressed and shows “Read” with a blank piece of paper. That’s what they’re talking about changing.
So far, I’m liking Alex’s idea about the rolled and unrolled newspaper. I suppose the open / closed envelope would also work. Even if it’s not technically accurate, people would still be able to associate it with read / unread since they’re so used to seeing it.
Something else that would be cool is to use something like the Firefox RSS indicator, like:
Read
Unread
Or my favorite from the Microsoft suggestions:
Read
Unread
Only problem with the Microsoft one is that it’s wide. When you shrink it to 16 wide, it’s 9px high, which is itty bitty… Of course you could eliminate the text “Read” and “Unread” afterwards and have simply the icon, but that messes up the whole icon naming scheme.
Just my .02…
I’m not going to pretend to understand why my comment had the images stripped… I decided to post a blog entry with them, which you can see at: http://incoherentbabble.com/2005/10/31/the-feedlounge-read-unread-icon/
WordPress strips images out of comments, before they make it to the database.
Alex,
It was clear to me that you guys were talking about the read/unread status of an item.
I was just trying to say that from my experience with Feed Readers, that the location where you are going to put an rolled or unrolled newspaper is where NetNewsWire, FeedDemon, Bloglines (and many more) put the Favicon of the site.
Obviously, you’re making a new application and can choose your own visual metaphors. With the shiny newness of all things feed related, it seems a shame to break with the few conventions that to have some traction.
For sites without favicons, they have a generic icon that stands in (typically something that looks like a web page).
I know that NNW doesn’t put a read/unread icon in with the item, Brent puts it in the main toolbar instead.
I’m sorry, but I still think you’re not understanding what I’m talking about here.
This is the current read/unread indicator for an item:
This is also used in the ‘Mark All Read’ button:
Now if I use the favicon here:
…what does that mean? Is the item read? Unread? What would the opposite state look like? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Ahd maybe using it as dimmed/undimmed?
So, a NEW UNREAD post will have a clear and sharp icon, while the READ post will have a faded and lighter icon.
Should be clear enough and doesn’t limit the “creativity” on the icon.
Liferea uses the page icon and toggles it on/off, i.e. there is no icon for read items. You could use the same page icon you have (on the right, with “lines”) for unread, and the same one only greyed out or inactive for read.
Maybe eyeglasses could be an option (like Agent), though that could easily be confused for “watched.”
What would we do when there is a really light favicon and the ‘dimmed’ version looks indistinguishable from the normal version?
You guys really think it’s a good idea to change the icon on a button every time the selected item changes in the view? This sounds like a nightmare to me - imagine arrowing through a bunch of items from a tag of feeds, on every item switch the Mark All Read button and the Read/Unread button change their icons… wouldn’t that be confusing and distracting?
I must have misunderstood, I wasn’t talking about dimming a favicon but the unread icon you’ve got in this post, so as to avoid your unread icon looking like a checkbox.
Sorry for the confusion, my previous response was to the comments before yours regarding the site’s favicon.
Hello, I’m very much looking forward to a public release of Feedlounge as it looks like a fabulous product. I currently use the Sage extension for Firefox.
With regards to represening the read/unread status in 16×16 icon would it not be possible to overlay a bold tick over the original icon (regardless of whether it’s a favicon or not) in the same way the Windows places a small arrow over an icon when it creates a shortcut file?
If not a tick - perhaps due to concerns about similiarities to the appearance of a checkbox image - then perhaps some other indicator such as spectacles.
Alternatively, rather than add an overlay image when it is read, you could remove one. So, an unread article may have an exclamation mark over it which gets removed once the article’s status changes from unread to read.
Additionally a star in the top corner of the article icon could indicate if the article is a new article or not and create added functionality to suggest ‘new and unread’ or ‘old and unread’ in the same space.
My apologies if these options are either unworkable or already catered for in some way - I’ve not had any first hand experience of Feedlounge.
Cheers,
Phil
Good ideas.
I like Phil’s ideas. In Onfolio when you read an item, it simply tacks a check mark over the top right of the piece of paper icon.
Now, in Onfolio’s “river of news”, it’s still not horribly obvious, but when you combine it with the “button” look FL already has and the bold / unbold of the title, I think the simplest solution would probably work the best…
Personally, I dislike the favicon idea entirely. I don’t think the favicon has any place in the reader. It would just serve to clutter up the nice clean interface and make the list of items look very messy and far too “busy”.
Just my .02…
Appologies, I thought you were refering to the list of feeds, not the individual item, it wasn’t clear.
So, uh, no. Don’t use favicons for individual items. That doesn’t make sense (although I could see having a favicon be included as a visual indicator in the little item toolbar, but thats another discussion).
I like the idea of a checkbox (a non-system-looking checkbox) once it is marked as read, like you checked it off your list of things to read.
The icon is used in both places - the feed list and the item display.
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