A UI puzzle

What do user-interface designers do to indicate function when everything becomes a button? I saw this on a train recently:

flush.jpg

I like the little icon. But for how many more generations will it be meaningful? And what will the little picture show after that? The mind boggles…

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3 Comments

Yes. I’ve wondered the same thing for the standard speed camera “logo”. Cameras haven’t look like this for 50 or more years!

So, are speed cameras radars? There’s no film, no images, etc., so I actually spent about a week in England many years ago looking very hard for any sign of cameras like they have in Sweden, for example, that actually take pictures of cars and drivers speeding. A big difference being that such cameras are usually permanently mounted, while radars are usually hand held.

I wonder if people in England actually like having dangling ropes in their bathrooms for lighs, and, apparently flushing? And, what’s anti-clockwise, anyway (seen on one of those deadly next-to-the-showerhead heaters in the UK)? 😉

Bathroom culture is perfectly fascinating. Coming from Sweden, I have a really hard time understanding why Americans have cold and hot faucets, when no-one presumably ever fills wash basins any more, but rinse in flowing water, and mixers and thermostats were invented long ago…. 😉

Hi CF –

It must have been some time ago, if you found speed cameras hard to find; they’re everywhere now, and yes, they’re permanently mounted cameras which take your picture after the radar has measured your speed.

I imagine that the newer ones are digital, but I think Jon’s point was that cameras don’t have bellows and film-winding knobs any more, whether roadside or elsewhere!

As for the plumbing, in the UK we still, to this day, maintain a fairly strict separation between hot and cold water, which dates from the time when cold water was deemed suitable for drinking, but hot water could have been stored in all sorts of funny cisterns in the house and might have had nasty things growing in it. In particular, there are regulations designed to ensure that if the mains cold water supply loses pressure, no hot water from people’s houses can feed back into the public supply…

And yes, it’s a nuisance!

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