Database icons are important
Posted by Theo Heselmans on December 15th, 2007
One of the first things I do after creating a new database for a customer, is design the Icon !
I see so many database carrying the same (old) original Notes icons.
I truly believe it is important to have an icon for the users' favorites and/or workspace that is preferably: catchy, recognizable, somewhat unique, and tailored.
It's the first impression the user has of your 'work'.
We all know the current (and 15 year old !) icon editor is clumsy and very limited.
Isn't this part of the challenge too ?
You don't have to be a graphical wizard (I know I'm not), just be creative!
There are some Notes icon databases that have been going around for years, and they do contain a fair amount of icons, but most of them are old or just plain ugly. I've used (and often adapted) some of those icons too. You can also google for 'small' images, and sometimes you are lucky. Most of the time I start up my favorite image editor (Fireworks in case you wonder), and make an icon there. Limiting the number of colors, and pasting it into the Notes Icon editor for finetuning.
On Idea Jam there are multiple request for improving Icon-support, and I promoted them all. For now, we have to live with it.
Here's some icons I did:
(note that I often try to add the customers logo too, as it's rather appreciated)
Care to share your own custom database icon designs too ?
I'll be watching your blog !
Category: Domino/Notes | 
Technorati: Lotus, Notes, Domino
Comments (5)
Yes - the standard icons and icon library on the Lotus sandbox are in desperate need of an update. I actually had one user tell me that Notes looks like 1990 technology. I think it was actually 1989...
For actions/buttons icons I purchased a commercial icon library, which has done wonders for the appearance of my applications. I haven't been able to find a similar option for the low-res database icons. Perhaps there should be an OpenNTF project for the more artistically inclined to donate icons to an icon library.
Anyway Theo, keep up the great work on this blog!
-Ed
I normally don't do the effort to create a database icon, since possibilities are so limited with 16 colors, but I have to admit there are some good icons in your examples (even a belgian flag :-)).
Just a question: I wonder how you limit the number of colors to the specific 16-color palette in Fireworks.
Regards,
Martin
@Martin
I limit the colors in Fireworks by setting the 'Optimize' parameters to GIF/Adaptive/4colors. This at least gives me a limited number of colors, which I hand-tune in the Notes Icon editor.
I just found this through a Google search for "Lotus Notes Database icons" while I was seeing what my options were before posting on IdeaJam. I'm glad I'm not the only one! I'm going to hit 'submit' now on my thoughts.. :-)
Just in case you didn't Google this one: { Link }