910976 - Blocked mixed content icon is unrecognizable - doesn't look like a shield

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Security, enhancement)

Description

[patrickjdempsey]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:23.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/23.0 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20130814063812

Steps to reproduce:

The icon which appears whenever mixed content it blocked looks like a cube.  Even though I know what it is, and know what it's supposed to be, every time I see it I see a cube and think "what is that?"  

I think part of the problem is that it appears to be based on the HTML5 logo, which is apparently supposed to be a shield, but I've *always* read it as a cube as well.  Probably because shields are not usually given pointy bottom corners, the top edges aren't usually convex, and they are not usually rendered with a high contrast split down the center.  

If me: someone with experience with art, knowledge of medieval weaponry, design skills, and knowledge of what it's supposed to be cannot read this, I don't see how any lay person will get it.

Not a single example I could find in a Google image search for "shield" even remotely looks like this icon, neither in it's shape, nor in it's split contrast rendering:
https://www.google.com/search?q=dropbox&client=firefox-a&hs=jXu&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=yvcfUs2rK63bsASVgoGQBA&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1058&bih=648#q=sheild&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&tbm=isch&imgdii=_

Comment 1

[Brian Smith (:briansmith, :bsmith, use NEEDINFO?)]

I don't know what we even use an icon. IMO it would be a locked clearer if we just used the word "Blocked" or something similar, especially if we were to merge the UIs for the mixed content blocker, plugin blocker, popup blocker, and other blockers.

Comment 2

[Andrei Vaida [:avaida]]

As this is basically a request for improving the blocked mixed content icon, the issue can be rather considered an enhancement instead of a bug.

Comment 3

[Jonathan Kingston [:jkt] he/him]

The UI has since changed to be on the padlock itself which I think is clearer. This now is no longer an issue in this form at least.

Thanks