Microsoft gets feedback (and then some) on RSS icon proposal

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Commercial

Microsoft gets feedback (and then some) on RSS icon proposal

by Marc Perton Oct 12th 2005

When Microsoft's RSS team posted some proposed icons for the RSS tool to be integrated into IE7, they no doubt expected a response, but I doubt they were prepared for the firestorm set off by the five orange rectangles displayed on the RSS team blog. "My feedback: a big thumb down. Use the white on orange XML icon and stop re-inventing," posted the effervescent Dave Winer. Meanwhile, over 200 comments filled the blog, ranging from serious discussions of the buttons to fanboy enthusiasm for some of Microsoft's other products ("Halo 2 rocks more than any of these icons... but then again... there's very little that rocks as much as Halo 2 to begin with."). The most cogent response I've seen came from Windows guru Ed Bott, who moved beyond design to focus on functionality: "Today, in most browsers, if you click the orange (or blue) XML/RSS/whatever button you get taken to a Web page that is an ugly, stripped-down version of the page you were just reading ... When IE7 ships, it needs to have a really great way of dealing with RSS feeds. If it's successful in that regard, then people at all technical levels will have a good experience when they click the button, regardless of its color, shape, or text." I think it's great that Microsoft is soliciting this kind of feedback as they develop new products, but somehow I suspect that deep inside Fortress Redmond, some IE developers are probably wishing they could just turn back the clock and develop by fiat like they did back in the day.

[Via Microsoft Watch]

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