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openstreetmap / openstreetmap-website

The Rails application that powers OpenStreetMap
https://www.openstreetmap.org/
GNU General Public License v2.0
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Navigation icon being used for geolocation feature #1494

Open xenotropic opened 7 years ago

xenotropic commented 7 years ago

The icon that is used for geolocation on the OSM site is currently this:

osm-geoloc-icon

That icon more typically used for navigation. I would expect that clicking on such an arrow would provide me with turn-by-turn directions. There are other icons that much more clearly mean "show me my location".

While there is not one definitive agreed-upon standard set of icons, The Noun Project includes many cc-licensed icons that are tagged and organized. If you search for "navigation", then you get a lot of arrows that are similar to the one above.

If you search for "current location" on the Noun Project, or just on Google Image Search, it yields many crosshair-like icons; such as: noun_814578_cc

(cc-by shashank singh, source)

Alternatively, if you search for "my location" on the Noun Project it gives many icons of a "dropped pin" with a human associated with it, e.g.:

noun_607182_cc (cc-by, Ismael Ruiz, source)

Either of those would be more clearly indicative of what the location button actually does. Please consider using one of those alternatives. I do not mean that you necessarily have to use one of these specific icons; I am just using them as representative of icons that, in general, are used to indicate the user's current position, so some other "crosshair" or "person-with-pin" icon would work as well. If cc-by is insufficient, I volunteer to go hunting for one that is public domain/cc0.

pnorman commented 7 years ago

Looking at Google Image results, I'm in agreement with changing. The arrow-like icon is most associated with navigation, and crosshairs of some kind with my/current location. Pins are better associated with other locations which aren't necessarily the user's, which is how we currently use them.

dieterdreist commented 7 years ago

2017-03-23 0:37 GMT+01:00 Paul Norman notifications@github.com:

Looking at Google Image results, I'm in agreement with changing. The arrow-like icon is most associated with navigation, and crosshairs of some kind with my/current location. Pins are better associated with other locations which aren't necessarily the user's, which is how we currently use them.

I believe it's a cultural question.

On iOS the arrow like icon is generally used for user location while on android it seems less so. I'm fine with the current icon.