No doubt you've all seen the "Computer" icon in Windows Vista. Some of you might have even clicked on it and few of you probably have a shortcut on your desktop. But has it ever occurred to you it's facing the wrong direction, away from you? At least one guy did, and this is just one of the minor details under scrutiny at the Windows UX Taskforce that is particularly fascinating.
The problem is, by default, Windows displays icons from left to right. Assuming the user sits in the middle of the monitor, the icons should in fact face right towards you and not the edge of the monitor. The only icon in Vista off the top of my head which does this correctly are the "folders" icon which open up towards the right. This actually conflicts with the official user experience guidelines suggesting the perspective of icons face left.
If this isn't weird enough, the Windows XP's icons and even conceptual Vista icons designed by Iconfactory faced the right (pun) way. For some unknown reason, Microsoft designers decided to flip them. Mac OSX icons face directly at you - probably the best solution.
Link: istartedsomething
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