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Our office recently updated to a new version of the Office Suite, and it still has an icon in the upper-left corner to perform the 'Save' function. Floppy drives have not been in use for years, and many children would not recognize a 3.5 inch floppy disk on sight. Programs have used this icon for years, because we have yet to find a suitable replacement. The CD/DVD can no longer represent saving, because they have come and gone. Even moving to the more abstract Piggy Bank icon would not work, because they are seldom used in the modern age. A USB Key icon may represent saving in some form, but the may not be around much longer if another medium gains favor. Does this mean that the venerable 3.5 inch Floppy will represent saving information to future generations, or should it be replaced by a different symbol?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by rleigh on Tuesday December 20 2016, @10:00AM
This has been in common use in various GNOME and KDE themes for years: green up arrow for "open", red down arrow for "save". No cloud in this case.
I was never a big fan of the floppy "save" icon when it originated. It demonstrates everything that's wrong with icons: that they are a poor substitute for written verbs describing an action. The only way it was discoverable was the addition of tooltips to describe them, and the corresponding icon next to Save on the File menu. The purpose should be implicit if they accurately represent the action, which a floppy disk does only vaguely. Why isn't it open? Why do open and save icons not have an obvious relationship?