Rockstar Icon Designer - Kate McInnes [7]
Application icons had to be designed with more detail than previous versions to take full advantage of the application launcher in GNOME 3.
2011 Ubuntu 11.04
Sponsored by London based company Canonical, Ubuntu is one of the most popular Operating Systems for Linux with over 40% of the market share[10]. Ubuntu is open-source and free to use with development funded by a technical support program called Ubuntu Advantage. As a relative newcomer to the OS space, the first version of Ubuntu was released in 2004, since that time there has been two updates of Ubuntu per year. In 2006 Ubuntu 6.06 saw the implementation of the Tango icon guidelines which unified the UI and gave Ubuntu an improved user experience. A new desktop theme, style guide and logo were designed for Ubuntu 10.4 in 2009 inspired by the idea of "Light”[11].
In a controversial move that caused ripples throughout the open-source community, Canonical broke away from the default desktop environment of GNOME in 2011. Merging Ubuntu with Ubuntu Netbook Edition Canonical used its own "Unity" desktop as the default desktop environment for Ubuntu 11.04. Unity is designed and maintained by the Ubuntu user experience group, Ayatana. Unity replaces the GNOME desktop metaphor with a full screen application launcher and file manager that is more representative of tablet and touch screen computer interfaces. The Launcher is static and situated at the right side of the desktop to facilitate wide screen displays and shows application icons against a square background in a matching color. While the icons still adhere to the Tango guidelines, the colors saturated and are paired with the orange and purple of the Ubuntu branding.
In a press release by Canonical on June 2nd 2011, three months after Ubuntu and Ubuntu Desktop were merged into Ubuntu version 11.04, it was announced that Ubuntu would be pre-loaded on the ASUS Eee PC series of Notebook computers.
The icons from Ubuntu's Unity desktop match the Ubuntu identity and are suited to high resolution displays.
Conclusions
Styles Come and Go, Great Design Will Last a Lifetime
Icon design has come a long way, but in some respects it has also stayed the same. The folder icon, which has been around for over 30 years, appears in countless GUIs and has been rendered in many different styles, but you will notice that it has rarely changed for a different metaphor. The Amiga Workbench swapped the folder for a drawer but this didn't see an industry wide change to the drawer as a standard design. So what makes the folder so successful? The answer lies in the way it communicates a meaning. There is a clear use for a folder, it is universally recognized, it can be drawn by almost anyone and has just one function.
In any style, the folder icon is easy to recognize and understand.
Technology Shapes the Way People Work
In the latter half of the timeline we see that GUIs such as Ubuntu and Gnome are moving towards a look that's uncluttered and inspired by touch-screen technology. The square style icons and dock-like menus are reminiscent of the Apple iPhone and iPad. What could be taken from this is that the rapidly growing market for these devices is shaping the way consumers expect to navigate programs and applications. It may also be a reflection of the kind of designs to be expected in the future.
In fact Mac OS X Lion, the most recent Macintosh Operating system, has integrated touchpad interactivity with the traditional desktop interface and early trade previews of Windows 8 reflect the same kind of changes with Microsoft. Windows 8 will dramatically change the Windows user experience with a dashboard style interface with integration for touch screen desktop monitors. Thankfully Windows 8 will ship with the choice of either the new “touch friendly” interface or the Windows 7 style desktop GUI, but this is definitely a trend icon designers should be watching for the future. With major players in the OS space moving towards a single user experience