This is perhaps similar to the trefoil for radioactivity (☢) which simply means “radiation” – if additional information is needed, it is supplied by context or additional text or symbols.

We’ve updated FeedLounge to alpha 7. This includes some pretty hefty changes:

Item Push – new items are now pushed to your browser (like Gmail). This means that counts should stay in sync properly as well. Y’all are going to love this f…

Not sure the analogy to traffic signs works for me – I think the icon is more abstract.

At the same time, though, I want to use an icon for the toolbutton that clearly means “Subscribeâ€? (for one thing, it re-inforces what the icon means). For this reason, I actually like the way FeedShow overlays the green plus – that differentiates it from the “normalâ€? subscribe icon, yet is still recognizable.

I understand and completely agree with this desire. However, I still believe that adding the “plus” to the icon dilutes the mark and is thus somewhat harmful.

I think that the “plus” on top of the icon that represents a feed (without a favicon) is probably a more appropriate choice.

It’s certainly not an “easy” situation, or we wouldn’t be having a discussion about it.

At the same time, though, I want to use an icon for the toolbutton that clearly means “Subscribe” (for one thing, it re-inforces what the icon means). For this reason, I actually like the way FeedShow overlays the green plus – that differentiates it from the “normal” subscribe icon, yet is still recognizable.

Thank you for the thoughtful response, let me try to do the same.

“[…]We all agreed that it’s in the user’s best interest to have one common icon to represent RSS and RSS-related features in a browser.[…]�, that what I read on the ‘rssteam’ blog. I agree with that and there is not action (subscribe) related to it.

I understand your interpretation and their loose definition, however I also see how it is currently used in Firefox (Hey! there’s a feed you can subscribe to here!) and (perhaps wrongly) am assuming it will be used the same in IE 7.

Let’s consider a feed like any other file (.txt, .pdf, .gif,…). You can read, subscribe, delete, … will you provide a different icon for all these actions ? No. You will certainly provide an instance of the original icon or a contextual menu.
For ’subscribe’, I chose to add a green ‘+’, others will certainly have more beautiful/meaningful icons (!) but the idea is here.

For FeedLounge, we are keeping the simple green plus/red X metaphor for adding and removing feeds. The icon and button represents the action, and the placement of the buttons make it clear that they apply to the feeds list.

Hum, I see you are using the icon in your right side menu, but there is no subscribe action related to it ???

This is true, at the moment. However all of the browser folks are working hard to make clicking a link work to hand off to the aggregator of your choice. Some browsers (Safari for example) already have semi-decent support for this. So I believe it is the proper usage, as it already does work as “Subscribe” in some browsers and others seem to be poised to follow suit.

Good thoughts and feedback, thanks for sharing them.

Petit–

Whats your take on discrimination between RSS 1, 2 and ATOM? Is it nescassary? What about the old well established buttons?

I don’t think it is important to differentiate them. To use an analogy, it would be using different icons to differentiate plain text e-mails and HTML e-mails. The end user doesn’t care enough to warrent the added confusion.

I fully agree with your opinion on the subscribe button. It’s a beautiful and unique sign and it should be used one way only for signicance.

Whats your take on discrimination between RSS 1, 2 and ATOM? Is it nescassary? What about the old well established buttons?

Thanks for a really good article on this matter.

I do not completely agree with you about the meaning of the icon though I agree about your request for standards (I chose the Firefox icon before Microsoft did).

“[...]We all agreed that it’s in the user’s best interest to have one common icon to represent RSS and RSS-related features in a browser.[...]“, that what I read on the ‘rssteam’ blog. I agree with that and there is not action (subscribe) related to it.

Let’s consider a feed like any other file (.txt, .pdf, .gif,…). You can read, subscribe, delete, … will you provide a different icon for all these actions ? No. You will certainly provide an instance of the original icon or a contextual menu.
For ‘subscribe’, I chose to add a green ‘+’, others will certainly have more beautiful/meaningful icons (!) but the idea is here.

Hum, I see you are using the icon in your right side menu, but there is no subscribe action related to it ???

Ready to discuss (and modify my icons), I wish Feedlounge great success.
Thierry (FeedShow).

but as an outsider, my expectation is that the icon represents the feed itself, rather than the action of subscribing to the feed. on its own it’s more nouny than verby. could be that that’s what these developers were seeing, also. i think the “+” modifier badge on that one screenshot is pretty clear, if technically incorrect.