Home folder icon should be a *folder* with the home symbol, not a home symbol

[Mark Shuttleworth]

Binary package hint: nautilus

We recently changed the icon on the default launcher to be the home folder. But the icon is a "Home", and it should be a "Folder - Home". The icon should be the folder icon with a home chiselled onto it. Right now, it's not clear that this is a *folder* that will open up.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

seems rather an icon theme issue, either the current icon should be update or the theme needs to ship a matching icon that could be used

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the icon currently used is also the one listed in nautilus itself or in the sidebar or in the gnome-panel places menu, it would make sense to have a folder icon for those as well so the icon should probably be updated in the theme

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Agreed - that icon should be consistent.

[Vish (vish)]

The fact that the /home/$USER is a folder is inconsequential,
the same way that / can also be considered a folder inside the location COMPUTER//:
Or, the way any partition or external-media-device is a folder in /media .
And we dont etch a partition/device on a folder icon for either of them even though they are folders within a higher folder hierarchy. They are each Top levels for that location.

No one wants to interact _with_ the Home(folder) , they want to interact with files or folders _inside_ Home . Further, so many actions are not available for interaction on the /home/$USER folder. It is better we differentiate it like how we differentiate the / and other devices.

At a time when we are trying to move away from the hierarchal arrangement of folders, It is to eliminate that Home is a folder metaphor and to treat it as a higher level location like / or /media/$foo where folders exist.
It is to show that Home is a similar higher level place where user just has _their_ folders or files .

This icon change is inline with nautilus design specification for a "Consistent name for home", which calls for the use of name "Home" everywhere(not Home folder). I would rather like to see *some* attention focused on improving the user experience > Bug 372703 , we have a completed design specification and a patches in bugzilla and it has recently been fixed upstream too. But still we have been sitting on it since Karmic.

[Vish (vish)]

Hmm, my ^reply is missing a few smilies here and there,.. :-)
I was more disappointed that I couldnt get <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OneHundredPaperCuts/Spec/382703> fixed in Maverick itself along with the icon changes, when it would have made sense quicker.. :-)

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

The reason I believe the home folder should be reflected as a folder, and not as a "naked home", is because there are MANY competing concepts of "home" in the operating system. Using Ubuntu as an example:

 - the Dash home screen could be considered "Home"
 - the desktop could be considered "home"
 - the login screen could be considered "home"

So, using just a "home" in this case is deeply unsatisfying. It does not pass the test of being able to predict, for the user, what will open if they click on that icon. In the case of Trash, it's obvious that what will open up is a view on a "set of files". But when the Home icon *on its own* appears in the Unity launcher, it's not at all clear what a user should expect to see if they click on it.

I have observed multiple people struggle with this in testing Unity with off-the-street end users. So, I do respect the Humanity team's preference, but in Natty, we will overwrite that icon in ubuntu-mono, and I'm writing here to encourage you to reconsider your position on the basis that it's not passing in real user testing.

[Vish (vish)]

Hi Mark, Thanks for the reply!
The current icon was only mainly designed for use in Nautilus alone where it would have made sense.
It was designed a while ago without Unity in mind, it was done long before Unity's current design.
I had not considered it being a problem when used in the Dash.
Dash Home screen confusion seems a very valid problem, and you have user-testing to back it up as well. You are right in making this choice for Unity and Ubuntu.

However, Humanity package is used in downstream distributions as well, and with a new Ubuntu icon theme on the horizon I am trying to make as minimum changes as required and wind up Humanity development. Humanity is mainly now in Bugfixing mode.

I have added the icons to ubuntu-mono, which should fix the issue for us in Unity. :-)

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Thanks Vish, you rock!