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0 pointsphilipodonnell7y ago0 comments

> Also, why a limit of 8 colors and 12 icons? Why not an arbitrary number of colors and user definable icons?

This commonly called the paradox of choice. Satisfaction is often higher when choosing from a limited set of good options than choosing from a large set of options with varying quality.

(YMMV, it is also used as an excuse for being inflexible, or for forcing bad options on users a.l.a. a false dilemma, and to be honest I'm not sure how to tell the difference as an outsider)

0 comments

darkpuma7y ago

It's pretty crap in practice. Which of those icons am I to choose for HN? Dog? Fork and knife? Apple? Sunglasses? Briefcase? Gift?

I chose 'Dollars' as the closest fit due to the association between the tech industry and greed, but really shouldn't there be at least one tech-themed icon? Of the 12, two are food themed, two or three are shopping related, etc. The icon set is redundant with poor conceptual coverage.

Okay, maybe I'm a nerd who cares about tech and Mozilla thinks most firefox users who use Multi-Account Containers will be regular joes who aren't interested in tech. I disagree, but maybe that's their theory. What icon am I to use for youtube? Everybody uses youtube. Is youtube conceptually a briefcase? Trees? Dog? Is it a dog because everybody watches dog videos on youtube? I chose sunglasses, because sunglasses are associated with eyes and eyes are associated with videos.. it's a pretty tenuous association. And which color? Red makes sense, youtube brands itself with the color red. Yet red isn't on the color list. Two shades of orange are on the list, but not red. What the fuck? So youtube is "dark orange sunglasses". Great, just great.

danillonunes7y ago

I just pretend that’s not a feature and use the circle with a single color for everything.

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