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macOS 26 Tahoe's Dead Canary Utility App Icons

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405 points Bogdanp | 2 comments | 26 Aug 25 00:03 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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_fzslm ◴[26 Aug 25 00:57 UTC] No.45021035[source]▶
OK, a couple bad icons here. But am I the only one who thinks the wrench metaphor actually looks good?
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masswerk ◴[26 Aug 25 02:35 UTC] No.45021678[source]▶
I'd call them "non-icons": they don't communicate in any way, they don't add significance or separate one application from the other at first glance, they don't really mean anything without the file name, they are really not much better than default icons. And this is probably what they are: default icons for a group of applications with a bit of variation sprinkled on top.

At this point, does it need that residual variation or is this just adding noise? Also, a shape inside a shape inside a shape inside a shape isn't anything anyone is likely to parse – how many bits of information is this? So maybe just go with a simple default wrench icon for all of them?

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1. janfoeh ◴[26 Aug 25 07:07 UTC] No.45023229[source]▶
Indeed, all you can do is learn and memorise what they represent. But a square filled with a solid color can do the same ("yellow is the hard disk thingy"), and that would actually be more glanceable and quicker to distinguish.

If your icon loses to a yellow cube, it is not a good icon.

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2. masswerk ◴[26 Aug 25 16:11 UTC] No.45028530[source]▶
Back in the day, when you could still have custom icons in the sidebar of the Finder and file dialogs (well, Snow Leopard…), I used colored spheres as identifiers for project folders, for minimal 1-bit attention. Which may be a proper use case for such a thing. (There's a clear relationship, but this is also subject to change.)