designing dashicons

What I learned about icons and the web

by Ben Dunkle (@EmpireOfLight)
WordCamp NYC, August 2014

About the talk

This presentation will cover:
  • a brief history of my role as icon designer for WordPress
  • the emerging "flat" paradigm for interface design, and how it impacted the icon designs
  • A demonstration on making dashicons using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and GlyphsMini

About me

  • core designer for wordpress.org 
  • co-admin (with Andy Staple) of Buffalo WordPress users group
  • organizer of WordCamp Buffalo  2012, 2013, 2014 (Sept. 13)
  • professor at Canisius College, Buffalo NY 
@empireoflight: twitter, wp, dribbble




when did wordpress get icons?

Pre 2.7; icons were hardly there

2.7: Coltrane (2008)


Those were cool! why change them?

See "Retina all the things" (http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/21019) 
 

3.8: new dashboard

http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/23333

dAshicons as "flat" design

  • simpler, fewer details
  • tighter or sharp edges
  • consistent or no shading
  • high contrast
  • flexible
  • embrace the medium
  • easier

windows 8

mobile apps


coffley
letterpress

clear


icons

old:

new:

ICON Technology : Bitmap

    • difficult to update
    • not scalable 
    • not semantic

    Icon technology : vector

    • easy (somewhat) to update
    • scalable
    • more semantic

    vector icon formats

    • icon fonts: "can be instantly customized — size, color, drop shadow, and anything that can be done with the power of CSS." (fontawesome.com)
    • SVG: Open source vector file format, with varying levels of support on the web
    • CSS: Exciting but probably limited; i.e. http://nicolasgallagher.com/pure-css-gui-icons/
    • Problem with all formats: rendering, especially font-smoothing, varies across browsers and devices. 

    options for plugin authors

    1. Keep using pngs
    2. use a dashicon
    3. use an icon font
    4. use an SVG
     


    Let's design a Dashicon!
    https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/27844#comment:20

    demo

     

    More links



    Converting the icon to SVG with http://webcodertools.com/imagetobase64converter



    Converting the icon to font with http://icomoon.io
    Adding the icon to your plugin a-la https://gist.github.com/helenhousandi/f7f6995795c4d58aa41e  
    Choosing an existing Dashicon ala http://melchoyce.github.io/dashicons/
    Till Kruess' thing https://github.com/tillkruess/MP6-Icon-Examples
    My thing: https://github.com/field2/mp6-style-icons

    QA & thanks!

    Designing Dashicons

    By Ben Dunkle

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    Designing Dashicons

    A brief history of dashicons, an icon font with deep WordPress roots.

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