Oxygen Icons Survey

Started in March 2005, at the Appeal Project meeting, in Berlin, the Oxygen icon theme is now created for the KDE 4 desktop in the SVG format. The use of the scalable vector graphics (SVG) allows the icons to better reflect 3D complex effects, highlights and shadows. Inspired by the OS X Aqua style, Oxygen is oriented not only to the modern and stylish look of the icons but also towards usability. The shape and color play an important role in defining an icon's purpose, as KDE does not assigns icons to files according to the applications used for opening/playing them. The icons view default size is estimated to be set for 128x128, this size being considered to better outline their usability purpose.

"Oxygen includes a full set of icons with a distinct "design note" for each icon type while adhering to the over-all look-n-feel" - David "Icon-King" Vignoni, graphic artist specialized in icons design.

The goals of the Oxygen icons:

- A well-designed concept supports usability and accessibility
- Being innovative and creative
- Respect use case studies, better fulfill the needs of the entire business and enterprise users
- Really nice art, acceptance through beauty

In order to better define each icon's purpose according to the user's preferences, the OpenUsability team has launched a survey spread on 20 pages. The survey takes almost 15 minutes and presents different icons in order to find out their possible meaning for the user. You will encounter 24 questions, among which:

- Which icon would open a menu showing all the applications on your computer? (On Windows this would be the start menu)
- Which icon takes you to the CD recording application?
- Which icon would open the web browser?
- Select all the items that are spreadsheet documents (tables with columns and rows that can contain numbers, text and formulas).
- Select all the items that are text processing documents (like .doc).
- Which of the icons below would you click to send your friend a copy of an e-mail?

You will also be asked to answer a few questions about yourself, for the team to gather statistical data.

You can take the survey right now here.

Here are a few samples of the Oxygen icons: