Restore original icon on macOS Big Sur and later
Categories
(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, enhancement)
Tracking
(Not tracked)
People
(Reporter: press, Unassigned)
Details
Attachments
(2 files)
thunderbird-new-old.png
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 11_5_1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/88.0.4324.192 Safari/537.36
Steps to reproduce:
Dear devs,
The new "redesigned" icon in TB92 on Big Sur is a BAD idea. Please restore your original excellent TB icon - which is a masterpiece.
I understand that you're trying to follow Apple's new pathetic "guidelines" on Big Sur. Some other big companies did the same, and ALL of those "redesigned" - that is shrunk - icons are equally horrible.
Here's why you need to restore the original icon, or redesign it differently:
-There's no need to follow every Apple's pathetic UI whim guideline. In addition to many good ideas, Apple also has a long history of atrocious UI decisions, and Big Sur is notorious for introducing yet more of them.
-Developers should adhere to common sense and just have some basic respect to their own well-established excellent icons.
-Shrinking an icon is not a "redesign". It's a lazy hack to pretend that something was done. Wow TB icon is now tiny - how user friendly and creative is that!
-If you just have to adhere to the new guidelines, there's a much better way to do that: leave the TB icon at its original size and place that rounded square behind it. With some parts of the icon protruding beyond the square area. It's allowed by the guidelines and Apple itself redesigned several of its own icons this way.
Thank you and hope your excellent original icon will be reinstated.
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Comment 1•4 years ago
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What "new redesigned icon"? If you have some point to make, then that point would be way easier to identify without all the "pathetic" or subjective terms like "common sense", etc., but by bringing up non-subjective arguments. People don't makes software changes out of boredom. :)
(In reply to Andre Klapper from comment #1)
What "new redesigned icon"?
First question: did you see the new TB 92 icon on Big Sur?
OK, Thunderbird just upgraded today and I got this "improved" icon and it also drives me nuts (Apple HIG in this regard is just retarded, sorry) and goes against everything that makes icons useful - ability to quickly identify and select the application.
Previously the icon in the dock looked like that: https://tamulab.jp/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/thunderbird-inbox_only00.jpg (sorry, can't make the screenshot myself).
Currently it looks like that https://files.unir.se/f/5f0e4a5b084141e4bd9d/ - it smaller and only adds completely useless padding to make the shape "uniform", which further makes distinguishing more difficult (please note that it's hovered so it should have been even bigger).
What's more - I'm not on BigSur and got this "redesign"...
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Comment 4•4 years ago
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-If you just have to adhere to the new guidelines, there's a much better way to do that: leave the TB icon at its original size and place that rounded square behind it. With some parts of the icon protruding beyond the square area. It's allowed by the guidelines and Apple itself redesigned several of its own icons this way.
maybe?
Folks - for UI issues, it's generally helpful to attach screen shots to bug reports. Even better for comparisons if they are shown side by side.
Comparison side-by-side.
New icon is smaller and has "uniform shape" which, with more icons like that, makes it more difficult to discern.
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Comment 7•4 years ago
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Thanks yes. Attaching images to the bug report ensures the information stays with the bug report.
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Comment 8•4 years ago
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We try to follow platforms guidelines when possible, but unfortunately we can't have different icons for different version of macos, so the updated icon will show up also on non-bigsur versions.
We decided to implement the square container because it creates a better visual separation with the dock in both light and dark mode.
For every visual change, there's a small adjustment time that it's required to get used to it and if you really don't like it and can't stand it, you can change the app icon the way you like it: https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/01/06/how-to-change-app-icons-on-macos
if you really don't like it and can't stand it, you can change the app icon the way you like it: https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/01/06/how-to-change-app-icons-on-macos
I wouldn't complain if the (rather dumb) macOS had sane possibility to change the icon. The problem with the linked article is that after each update the icon reverts to the default one, so it's quite tedious to change it time and time again...
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Comment 10•4 years ago
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Examples of icons that adhere to Apple's guidelines in a tasteful and user friendly way.
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Comment 11•4 years ago
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(In reply to Alessandro Castellani [:aleca] from comment #8)
We try to follow platforms guidelines when possible, but unfortunately we can't have different icons for different version of macos, so the updated icon will show up also on non-bigsur versions.
I understand the desire to follow guidelines. However, nowhere in their icon guidelines - as unnecessary and dubious as they are - Apple suggests that the developers must:
-shrink the icon
-make it hardly visible
-make it nearly indistinguishable from other icons
-make it a sad parody of the original icon
We decided to implement the square container because it creates a better visual separation with the dock in both light and dark mode.
Sorry, but it's not helpful at all.
I attached a screenshot of several icons that demonstrate how an icon can adhere to Apple's guidelines without being vandalized and becoming otherwise user-unfriendly:
https://zevrix.com/_img-misc/tb-icons/good-examples.png
I'll also shortly post a suggestion for TB icon itself.
Description
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