Nic’s blog

I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.

Nic Haralambous Nic Haralambous

Outdated save icons mean nothing

Have you Windows users noted what the "save" icon is in almost every programme available? It's a floppy disk.A FLOPPY DISK?!?!?I baby sat my four year old cousin, Alex, on Saturday morning. I was sitting watching TV and he was mucking about in the TV cabinet when he brought me something to look at. It was a strange, old, ancient relic that he could not figure out. He didn't understand what this thing could possibly do. He turned upside down, rightside up, backward, forward, inwards until he finally asked me,"Nic, what it is?" So I answered him with a simple, "It's a tape, VHS. It has movies on it," subtle yet calm response. "But DVD Nic, that has movie, what's this?" came his response.Basically my motivation for writing this is simple. How can Windows still be making use of the floppy disk as the icon for saving and stability when my little four year old cousin has never even seen, let alone used, a VHS tape before? It's time to move on.People under the age of 16 or even 18 simply know that that rectangular-ish thingy in the top left next to that file-looking-folder thing is meant to represent save. So they click it and it's saved.When was last time you recall using a floppy, stiffy or VHS tape for anything?

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