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 The CD/DVD can no longer represent saving, because they have come and gone.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: 1) by tekk on Tuesday December 20 2016, @10:55AM
Seriously, the floppy is exactly what's needed now because it's transcended the physical meaning, it's universal, unambiguous (now) language for save. I'd wager that my youngest brother knows it only as "the save icon", and there's a pretty famous thing about kids freaking out because "Whoa, someone 3d printed a save icon! Cool!"
(Score: 1) by Burz on Thursday December 22 2016, @12:17AM
If you're going to preserve an image of outdated hardware, at least use the original symbol... the cylinder or drum. IBM and Lenovo have used it into the 2010s, with an arrow pointing to it or away from it. Today, the cylinder represents the abstract idea of a "storage volume" rather well (e.g. it looks like a volume of something).