» Deleting the “Save” Icon :: Positive Space Blog

User interface design is plagued by conventions and for obvious reason, familiarity and usability. The conventions are obvious, which is why they have been successful, a house for the “homepage” or a piece of chain to represent “links.” Arguments about creativity of these conventions aside, there is one such convention that needs to be abandoned. The particular convention that I am talking about is the floppy disk as “save” icon.

When was the last time that a computer even shipped with a floppy disk drive? 2002? And even at that time they were definitely well into the stages of decline. When the icon is a reference to a physical item which is no longer in use, shouldn’t it as well be changed? Additionally, consider the effectiveness of the icon when the viewer is unfamiliar with the original object.

Children new to the computer who are not old enough to know what a floppy disk is have no frame of reference to understand the icon’s meaning. When designing for an age group such as this, it would actually take more explanation to describe what a floppy disk is than it would to explain the concept of “saving.” In this situation, the use of a floppy disk as a pictographic representation of “saving” is an obvious failure.

We need a more conceptual solution.

When trying to solve this new visual problem we are left in an interesting situation. For one, more often than not data is being saved to a hard drive rather than a removable format. While saving to a centralized hard drive is somewhat abstract in concept, consider the recent move to “cloud” based storage solutions. Each of these situations demands a more conceptual solution, to avoid becoming obsolete as soon as they are developed.

Change happens quickly within technology which means that references to technology need to change just as fast. The conventions found with interface design need to be flexible enough to adjust to these changes. As graphic designers, we need to question our choices when designing interfaces, are the conventions we rely on actually ineffective?

09/09

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47 Responses to “Deleting the “Save” Icon”

Brian Purkiss
September 9th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

Hm…..
Most interesting thoughts….
and I agree.

but.
What will we change it to?
Janko
September 10th, 2008 at 2:46 am

Yeah, I was talking with my colleagues about this month ago. Couldn’t agree more.

But I have same question as Brian, what it should looks like?
Lim Chee Aun
September 10th, 2008 at 3:05 am

From Dictionary.app, save = keep and store up something for future use. So, change the floppy to hard disk or CD? Doesn’t sound right..
Ferris
September 10th, 2008 at 3:33 am

And what about the paste-icon? Often a clipboard, haven’t seen those irl for a while…
ScorpAL
September 10th, 2008 at 3:45 am

You should use green arrow icon for downloading.
Like save from internet.
Rui Silva
September 10th, 2008 at 4:01 am

I use a green check mark with a save label in front of it. It’s like: “Alright, save it!”

Interesting subject btw.
Lim Chee Aun
September 10th, 2008 at 4:10 am

@ScorpAL that’s the ‘Download’ icon, not ‘Save’. When you edit a text file, and you save (not download) it later right?

@Rui a green checkmark means ‘Validate’, ‘Correct’ or ‘OK’, in my opinion. Doesn’t seem related to ‘Save’ though.
Niccolò Zamborlini
September 10th, 2008 at 5:00 am

DOWNLOAD (down arrow) = get a copy from a source.

UPLOAD (up arrow?) = put a master somewhere, LIKE saving a copy.
Tom
September 10th, 2008 at 5:01 am

I agree with you, but what’s the alternative? We are used to the floppy disk icon, changing it could disorient users.
Paul Walker
September 10th, 2008 at 5:07 am

Ideas:
Open Filing cabinet
Shelf with a file on it.
Ice cube (‘freezing’ the file in its current state)
Flash drive (same issue as the floppy disc though)
‘New’ document overlapping ‘Old’, yellowed document, arrow pointing to signify the new replacing the old.
Folder, arrow pointing into it (this would make it more appropriate to have Open include an arrow pointing out of the folder; which I’ve seen before, but which isn’t the standard)

But — do we really need save at all? why not just save every change, store a backup of the unedited file, and allow people to undo, revert, etc.
Elaine McVicar
September 10th, 2008 at 5:37 am

Aww, I love the floppy disk icon, but alas it is an excellent point.

I agree that a tick is quite reasonable but rather dull. It’s going to be a rather hard convention to change.
Wardell
September 10th, 2008 at 5:39 am

A green check for save and a red x for cancel makes sense to me.
Azeem
September 10th, 2008 at 6:05 am

Good point - Although the disk icon will still be recognisable and understandable to the majority of people born before the early 90’s - it is definitely a subject to consider for the future.

Perhaps yet another convention isn’t the way forward considering the speed at which things change.

Accompanying text is always helps though.
Don
September 10th, 2008 at 8:59 am

How about an icon that says “Save” on it?
Brandon Cox
September 10th, 2008 at 9:44 am

A life preserver - or David Hasslehoff carrying one of those red things!
Zinni
September 10th, 2008 at 9:51 am

A ton of you have asked what should replace the disk icon, and I think there is no one answer. The answer is that there is no one answer, and that the correct icon should be contextually appropriate to its application.

One thing I will say though is that I don’t think adding the word save to the icon is an effective solution. That would be polishing a turn IMO. Icons exist because they can relay a message faster and more effectively than text would allow…
Boots
September 10th, 2008 at 10:46 am

Unfortunately, we’re met with a situation where the floppy disk has taken on a new meaning in the world of computing. It’s known as the “save icon” now. So, until there is a more obvious solution, I see no reason to change it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Adam
September 10th, 2008 at 11:15 am

This represents an interesting problem, especially as we move further away from older models of actions into more abstract computer ones.

Typically with an UI you want to couple three elements to make it as easy and memorable as possible. An Icon, Text, and color. At the very least use two.

Office 2003 uses just an icon for save (unless you hover), whereas 2007 uses the icon and text making it far easier to determine what you are doing. Some icons are common and easy to understand, but when you start trying to define more complicated actions like margins, charts, outline, draft, print preview - icons along wont work very well. I think ultimately there is not going to be a “right” icon, and you have to battle tradition and what people are already familiar with from past programs, with literal convention of what the icon depicts.
Andrew Kelsall
September 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

Since saving to floppy disc was once the only real option, this is why, obviously, the disc icon was utilised.

Now, in 2008, the ways we save files is vast, and would be hard to condense down into one symbol unless a ‘standard’ was created, such as the creation and adoption of the RSS icon.

These user-chosen adoptions may give rise to such an icon. For example, the Twitter Bird icon…this is not a design from Twitter, but user-developed and implemented, a derivative of the abstract-style bird on the Twitter home page.

But, as yet, no such ‘save symbol’ is being used for saving files, so many sites are using the word “save” instead. Better this than the floppy disc…
billtron
September 10th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the option of having an icon of a safe yet.
zeldar
September 10th, 2008 at 2:59 pm

You’re surrounded by icons that have lost their non-iconic meaning. My phone’s voicemail icon is a reel-to-reel tape. What kid today gets that reference? This story is as old as the ampersand and the US $ glyph. So let the disk live on as an icon - it’s recognizable and distinct, and meaningful in its new sense.
anthromt
September 10th, 2008 at 3:19 pm

I say leave it (per zeldar) - by now the floppy-disk symbol has become a self-referential icon. It no longer means “save to a floppy disk” (because nobody has them anymore). It just means “save”, and everyone understands that. While the floppies are now obsolete, the symbol clearly is not. You don’t _need_ to know what a floppy disk is (or was) in order to conceptualize the meaning of the icon, it means what it means. Why re-invent the wheel?

Plus, it’s a nice historical tie to the “early days” of personal computing - a nod to our techno-heritage, so to speak.
Zinni
September 10th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Zeldar, I don’t know that the ampersand and dollar sign are a good example. These are as you said glyphs and not icons. All characters and glyphs have to be learned. no one knows the meaning of a glyph until it is taught, and glyphs are not pictorial.
CHelmertz
September 10th, 2008 at 4:56 pm

The action of “saving” should not be placed upon the physical means of performing the “save” since the evolution won’t really stop. Ever.

@ Niccolò: “getting a copy” => save per definition

@ Tom & anthromt: Perfectly valid point. Although, a change now, when the number of computer users learning “old” (not that many years) metaphors, would be better than reteaching those kids mentioned in the post.

@ Paul: I like the ‘ice cube’ and modern last paragraph, good point.

@ Don: Icon = representation of something not replication.

@ Zinni: A contextual icon would force users to relearn each icon and thus remove the value of having a common icon.

To add something to discussion: What’s the difference between tagging HTML content with saving it to your ? Saving is a matter of using the saved matter later, not the process of saving in itself, which Paul pointed out well.
Ray Hernandez
September 10th, 2008 at 7:53 pm

What about not needing an icon at all? What if the default was auto-save, and everything we did was saved automatically?

Then there is no need to confuse people that are used to it, and kids grow up knowing that things are saved automatically, because websites and software have just evolved into not needing manually things anymore.

Maybe?
Matt
September 10th, 2008 at 8:22 pm

And while you’re at it, try switching our keyboards to dvorak too.
oconndav
September 11th, 2008 at 1:24 am

Leave the floppy disk alone
I haven’t heard complaints from users who are unable to figure it out anyway..

We are surround by images and icons every day that refer to past technologies. I’m thinking of paper scrolls, steam trains, old movie reels, TVs with aerials on top, old telephones etc etc.

We can’t go changing every universal symbol because the design of a particular technology changes.

A kid learning how to use a PC would have have to learn what the ‘save’ icon does no matter what it looks like. Doesn’t matter if it’s a green arrow, a safe, or a floppy drive.

Actually the good thing about the floppy being an old technology means that it’s unlikely that any other function will use this image. If we start using arrows then it will be difficult to distinguish it from other potential functions.

Personal opinion - we don’t have a problem so leave it alone!
Madjick
September 11th, 2008 at 2:30 am

Very interesting discussion here (as ususal).
Funny that nobody has notices that so far we always (almost) save our digital data to a disc. Is it a floppy, hard drive, cd or dvd - it’s always a disc. So now I begin to wonder myself why wasnt the “Save” icon a disc from the beginning?
If I had to choose an icon for the save function - I’d take a circle/disc with an arrow directed to it. This is a pretty simple concept that leaves a lot of space for creativity and is easily memorable. So maybe that would be the way to go?

At least till a different data carrier will dominate our lives…
blackdog
September 11th, 2008 at 3:20 am

@Tom: Google in the Document apps don’t use icon, there’s just the “Save” label.
In the doubt, i think is the better idea while someone has an “eureka!”. Children that use a computer are able to read, right? I mean, if you want to save is because you are writing something.
If you are just playing a videogame, well, games are going more and more to autosave & checkpoints so, no problem there.

Btw the only icon i could think of as an alternative for now is -like Niccolò said- the upload arrow.
Kerwin
September 11th, 2008 at 7:39 am

I don’t really agree on the everything saveable to is round (cd/dvd/harddrive) because who says it’s going to stay that way?
New flash harddrives, like in the macbook air and such, ain’t round are they?

Some icons ain’t very appropriate anymore in these times, but not only the save icon. Take the search magnifying glass, did you ever look for something using that?
Did you every actually cut and paste using a clipboard?

Young kids now grow up seeing icons that are not relevant to their surroundings, but they will know the icon of a film strip belongs to a movie without actually ever used or seen one.

I guess it’s just culture or whatever…
Rob
September 11th, 2008 at 9:31 am

The floppy drive lives on after death!!

I’ve always used the floppy disk icon for my applications, there will be one day where another icon will take it’s place.

Technology today keeps upgrading, take pc’s for example. You buy a new computer, one month later its already old compared to whats now on the market… Will we ever be able to have a generic icon to keep up with the methods used to save?
Jacob Cass
September 11th, 2008 at 9:36 am

Wow, I never really thought about it but it does not make sense at all, in one sense I can see it as “Saving To Disk” as in your hard drive but it is not an icon that is recognisable to others who weren’t around when floppies were.
Larry
September 11th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

Why not the folder icon? Perhaps with the word save on it, or with an arrow pointing to it? A folder icon would allow a lot of design customization without losing the meaning.
Espen Liland
September 11th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

@Larry: Folders are on their way out as well (ie. Microsoft’s new WinFS), so if we switched to using folders we’d have the same problem (although, I don’t really see this “situation” as a problem worth mentioning) in about ten years time when we’re all using databases and categories and tags to organize our files.

I say keep the floppy. It’s become The Save Icon and it’ll take about 1 week for new IT users to get used to it. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt if the people born today, in 15 years time suddenly wonder “what exactly IS that save icon thing?”, and then go Google it. History if phun
Kerwin
September 12th, 2008 at 2:39 am

@ Espen Liland
Quote - “I say keep the floppy. It’s become The Save Icon and it’ll take about 1 week for new IT users to get used to it.”

Well, the point of an icon is that it should be recognized for it’s purpouse strait away right…?
So if that’s the case, maybe we do need a new save icon.
crises
September 12th, 2008 at 5:36 am

if things work, why we have to change?
Salt Lake City Graphic Design
September 12th, 2008 at 11:39 am

How bout a superman logo? JK seems like a icon of an open hard disk with say a read/write head over might work…
liam
September 14th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

I think you make a good point. It is quite stupid that we still use it, but at the same time I can see why people would say that we should keep it as it’s what we are all used to.

But just think, it’s going to need to change at some point. Why not change it now? Lets say 40 years down the line, it’s just not going to make sense even more so than now.

I think now would be a great time to change it, but as for ideas… I’m stuck for suggestions.

liam’s latest post: Contest: Win a Copy of the brand new Papercut Theme
me
September 16th, 2008 at 2:11 am

hour-glasses aren’t very modern, but pop up now and then when waiting on certain apps.

just because it’s not used doesn’t mean people won’t understand their origin. or need to.
madrigalia
September 18th, 2008 at 9:32 pm

billtron: even more surprised that a piggy bank hasn’t come up… the shape is visually recognizable and more open to whimsy than a square steel box.
LW
September 19th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

How about going older instead of newer? A book or bookshelf is a good icon (if we stop using a book icon for other stuff). To me, putting something in a book (address book, scrapbook, photo album, journal, notebook, etc.) or on a bookshelf means that you need to keep those exact words for later, so you can pull it off the shelf when you need it. Yes, books might become archaic soon, but they’ll be familiar, and have cultural symbolism, for much longer than disks, etc.
Dan H
September 29th, 2008 at 8:50 am

For quite a while, MS Office for Mac OS has used a Zip Disk icon instead of a floppy disk. Not that many people ever used Zip Disks, and certainly few people really noticed the difference between a Zip Disk and a floppy disk.

I’ve noticed in Apple’s document-based applications (iWork) that there is no “Save” button on the toolbar. You can’t even customize the toolbar to add one.

Now, some people know command+S to save, or File menu > Save. And, if you don’t know the shortcuts, you’re prompted to save when closing the document or quitting the application. On those dialogue boxes, there is never a Save-related icon, only the word “Save”.
Captain Fairly-Obvious
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:57 pm

Instead of “diskette”, change it to “version”, so that each specific change can have its version/revision.
Kevin Yeoh
October 6th, 2008 at 9:59 pm

I agree with Dan H, you just hit cmd-s or ctrl-s. It is something too common that you don’t need a graphical icon to explain. And, when is the last time you actually ‘save’ something intentionally to local drive? I assume ‘download’ would be the daily activity.