Symbols for Diagrams

[danielromlein]

About

Kubernetes is a complex product and we would like to be able to better explain its core concepts through use of visuals. A visual language composed of symbols and icons will enable the creation of illustrative diagrams.

Current State

Only symbols we have today are in the first five slides of this Google Cloud Platform slide deck (if anyone has any others please share).

Proposal

1. Prioritize concepts we want to have visualizations for.
2. Discuss possible representations for concepts & post sketches. Loop in Google UX researchers for feedback.
3. Establish basic visual guidelines for designs of different icons to adhere to as we expand the library. Symbols should be grounded in Material Design System Icons principles (e.g. "Bold, geometric, simple, intuitive, actionable, consistent"). The Slides of the Google Cloud Platform visual language should be referenced as inspiration, but we're also not going out of our way to align with this style.
4. Design visually consistent vector (i.e. SVG) symbols.

Based on @bgrant0607's proposed concepts, I've put together the following list of concepts to consider for visualization:

• Pod
• All types of services:
  • Cluster
  • Nodeport
  • Loadbalancer
  • Headless
  • Imported
• Ingress
• EndPoint
• Every controller:
  • Replication Controller
  • Replica Set
  • Deployment
  • DaemonSet
  • PetSet
  • Job
  • ScheduledJob
• Rolling update
• Canary deployment pattern
  • with ConfigMap
• Horizontal Pod Autoscaling
• ServiceAccount
• Secret
• Persistent Volumes and Persistent Volume Claims
• System Architecture
• Things we will need to diagram concepts and processes
  • Virtual IP
  • IP address
  • Running Container
  • Request / Response

As @pwittrock pointed out, we should focus first on designing visualizations for concepts, while keeping in mind how those visualizations will come together in more complex diagrams (e.g. deployment)

Reference

• Issue #84 – "We need more diagrams!"
• Brian Grant WSO2Con US 2015 Kubernetes Slides
• Microsoft's Azure, Cloud and Enterprise Symbol / Icon Set

[bryk]

CC @kubernetes/dashboard-maintainers

[bryk]

Is this about creating simple icons that'll identify aforementioned concepts or complex diagrams that would explain how they work? I'm particularly interested whether this would fit into the navigation menu that we work on in https://github.com/kubernetes/dashboard/issues/908.

If this can fit into the menu, I'm more than happy to gather a team and help out with this. We can do some collaborative brainstorming to throw out ideas on the table.

What do you think?

[bryk]

Prioritize concepts we want to have visualizations for.

I'd like us to move forward with top-level menu items from: https://github.com/kubernetes/dashboard/issues/908. Then, if feasible, second level of navigation.

[jaredbhatti]

Closing this issue for issue hygine reasons. Please reopen if it's still necessary.

[techtonik]

It is still necessary - #3584

[techtonik]

I'd like to create Inkscape symbol library and even cover it with some history to introduce people into it if there are some funds.

[techtonik]

Also would be nice to have some convention for placing such symbols in source code repositories.

[Vlaaaaaaad]

This is very much needed. Creating documentation and plans for Kubernetes without having any icons is a huge struggle. The end-result looks bad too.

See AWS Icon packs and how AWS schemas are all the same, no matter who the author is( an official drawing or a random blog post).

[Roderick-Jonsson]

@danielromlein I have done some diagrams which cover some concepts you mentioned. Here you have an example PowerodIT - Blog - Kubernetes Patterns: Stateless Applications. Is there still interest in pursuing this project from your side. Would be interested to have short chat with you about the project.

[collinmangum]

@danielromlein @Roderick-Jonsson @Vlaaaaaaad I work at Lucidchart and since there are no official Kubernetes icons we are seriously looking to create an icon pack for diagramming purposes. If there is anyone that would be interested in chatting with us about that let me know, we would love input from the community.

[Roderick-Jonsson]

@collinmangum You guys where actually on my mind, great to hear from you. We are at the moment reviving the project. @danielromlein has his meetings on Thursdays, how about we meet then to further discuss this opportunity?

[Vlaaaaaaad]

@collinmangum: great initiative from Lucidchart! Not sure how much I can help, but I'm open for a chat.

I'd prefer a more... minimalistic approach with simple lines, but that's me.

I can say I really enjoyed the icons used in this blog post by @etiennetremel. A big hexagon for a pod and smaller ones for containers seem great. The hexagon motif is used in the Kublr Control Plane section on kublr too where an example of a detailed container/pod view can be seen.

[etiennetremel]

Thanks @Vlaaaaaaad, Container Solutions also helped with the diagrams used in the Kubernetes basics tutorials

[Vlaaaaaaad]

@etiennetremel wow, those are great. Extending on them seems perfect.

BTW, are the resources available anywhere? I'd love to use them.

[etiennetremel]

Some of these resources available here: https://github.com/kubernetes/website/tree/master/docs/tutorials/kubernetes-basics/public/images

[collinmangum]

Glad to hear of some excitement behind this project! @Roderick-Jonsson can you invite me to the Thursday meeting referenced and I'll get a few members of the Lucidchart team on the line with me so we can have some initial discussions?

[Roderick-Jonsson]

@collinmangum Great! I just took a look at the SIG meeting calendar @danielromlein will there be a meeting tomorrow?

[Roderick-Jonsson]

@collinmangum @danielromlein Seems that there is no meeting slot for today. Let's make an open meeting next Thursday where everybody interested in getting this project of the ground is encouraged to join in :)

[collinmangum]

Sounds great, @Roderick-Jonsson. I will watch for the meeting info and have some Lucidchart representation.

[collinmangum]

@Roderick-Jonsson I'm not seeing a meeting slot on the calendar for Thursday. Is there one scheduled? Trying to ensure I can have some Lucidchart members join.

[Roderick-Jonsson]

@collinmangum Sorry for the delay there seem to be changes going on. I am waiting for someone from the team opening the calendar entry. @danielromlein @maciaszczykm @floreks

[danielromlein]

@collinmangum not sure where the calendar event went for SIG UI's weekly. For now, I've created a one-off meeting this Thursday at the typical time so we can chat then. Thanks for your interest!

[collinmangum]

Great, thanks @danielromlein! Chat with you Thursday at 9am PT.

[etiennecoutaud]

I'm not sure if it's the right place, but we worked on kubernetes symbols for diagrams.

Feel free to use: https://github.com/octo-technology/kubernetes-icons

Do not hesitate to ask for help if needed.

[dankohn]

I think these are great. If you wanted to contribute them to CNCF, we would be happy to host them, which may get them additional attention. Unless, perhaps, ContribEx wanted to host them in the Kubernetes project directly.

Cc @parispittman @castrojo @Phillels @thockin

[etiennecoutaud]

It would be a pleasure to contribute them to CNCF.

I'm waiting for ContribEx feedbacks

[castrojo]

cc @kubernetes/sig-architecture-feature-requests as I know their charter mentions documenting the k8s architecture and they might have an opinion on this. We could either create a new directory for it or put it under the sig-arch/ directory.

[lucidanthony]

@etiennecoutaud these are excellent! @collinmangum and I work for a diagramming company, Lucidchart (see mention earlier in this thread), and we've been looking for a canonical source of Kubernetes icons. Our goal is to turn them into a shape library so that people can use them to create Kubernetes architecture diagrams. We have similar shape libraries for AWS, GCP, and Azure today.

Would you be open to our using these icons in a Kubernetes shape library?

[etiennecoutaud]

@lucidanthony sure !

[jdumars]

+100 for a Lucidchart Kubernetes icon set.

[idvoretskyi]

+100 as well!

Great job!