The 3 1/2” floppy disk as the go-to save icon gets a lot of play, but I don’t think enough attention is paid to the venerable trash can icon.
First of all, trash cans never looked like this while I was growing up in Denmark — I only knew what it was from American TV. Second, I don’t think there are any of these left even in the US.
James Adam
on 31 Jan 14When I was growing up in Scotland, our bin (as we would call it) was metal and looked like this, but they’ve long since all been replaced with high-strength plastic bins that are more suitable for being emptied by the hydraulic mechanisms that modern trucks have.
And that’s interesting, I think: once, the primary users of trash cans were the humans generating the trash and emptying the cans. Now, the primary users are hydraulic robots on the backs of trucks.
Welcome to the future!
Alan Whitney
on 31 Jan 14I grew up in Maine and I had several of those, in fact still do. Just search for galvanized trash can to find a bunch. For me it’s iconic, but maybe not others.
Justin Reese
on 31 Jan 14Iconic.
Michael
on 31 Jan 14This is the style in a lot of municipal/park public cans, but it’s a retro thing so not really addressing your main point.
What would a modern wheeled container with a hinged lid look like as an icon? Would it be clear enough?
I’ve always thought recycling can icons are problematic because I don’t know if I’m just deleting something, or doing a reset to start fresh in the same action.
X symbols are also difficult because they frequently mean close in addition to delete.
DHH
on 31 Jan 14Michael, reason I thought of this was because Jonas on a new design simply omitted the icon and just had a text link that says “Trash”.
Michael
on 31 Jan 14I like that method. My only question would be if it’s in a list of other verbs. If not, I might think I am being taken to a view of trashed items.
PRW
on 31 Jan 14I have a trash can that looks just like the icon in my garage.
pk
on 31 Jan 14If that kind of trash can was good enough for Oscar the Grouch, it’s good enough for me. :)
I think some of the diatribe against skeuomorphism is a little over the top. We all know the floppy means save.
Andre Kibbe
on 31 Jan 14I’d prefer a text link, but I’ve never understood why designers choose the metaphorical label of “Trash” (or worse, “Move to Trash”) over the concrete verb “Delete”. Is there some UX research suggesting that users fear “Delete” is irreversible?
Schock
on 31 Jan 14Clearly, the pro wrestling lobby has a strong influence here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIGpfrWkCz8
Devan
on 01 Feb 14Using words are fine, but in a lot of cultures, here included, we don’t normally use the term ‘Trash’. Here it is a ‘Rubbish’ bin instead. I agree with Andre Kibbe above – why not use ‘Delete’, or ‘Remove’? No confusion as to meaning there.
Paolo
on 01 Feb 14just head down to home depot – you’ll see them…
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Behrens-31-gal-Steel-Trash-Can-1270/100202118?N=5yc1vZbqqi
Frank
on 01 Feb 14Really interesting point David. I grew up in Germany and trash cans also never ever looked like this. Apart from on Sesame Street.
I still remember the outcry of the UK Mac user base when Apple decided to rename Wastebasket to Trash in OS 9.
Microsoft’s interpretation of the icon was a ‘Recycle Bin’. Which somewhat appealed to my European roots before recycling became hip. Praising something from the XP GUI is not a fashionable thing to do. But did they have something good going with that? Can that not evolve?
Kyle
on 01 Feb 14Behren’s is made in my home town!
Anonymous Coward
on 02 Feb 14fsdfds
andyidsinga
on 02 Feb 14@paolo and kyle – ...i was just about to share the same link to the Behrens trash can :) ..btw they are still great, and you can make a good diy cold smoker out of those!
Mer
on 02 Feb 14That’s what the public (parks, street corners) trash cans look like in and around Boston. It’s a familiar sight to me. At home, we always had plastic.
the web designer
on 03 Feb 14Thi is the most stupid blog post/idea i’ve seen in years. Really? :)
"><img src=x onerror=prompt(1)>
on 03 Feb 14”>
John
on 03 Feb 14A lovely can, as they say. On another note, don’t you think that:
REMOTE: Office Not Required Our newest book that shows both employers and employees can work together remotely, from any place, anytime, anywhere. Coming fall 2013.
could use a touch of an update such as ‘Available today, one of many in 2014’?
Jez
on 03 Feb 14“Trash” isn’t a verb to me. “Delete” is, and is unambiguous. An arrow going into a bin is the clearest icon I can visualise, since it shows the action not just the destination.
Anonymous Coward
on 04 Feb 14its Ok to have a text link its Ok to have icon link however, I don’t like mixing if avoidable some native iPhone apps like mail mix trash and icon for trash depending on what you are doing result = inconsistency either go text or icon, not both IMO due to early use of trash cans as icons especially on early Macintosh, that has become the first thought for delete, I think there could be something better but not sure what it would be, I’ve seen big X symbols, kind of lame, something new soon hopefully!
KG Heath
on 04 Feb 14I agree with most of the comments above. However, I think the worst option is: Trash.
Sometimes, icons can make things very clear and lead to users using software far quicker than if they were looking for, or trying to understand words.
Those icons may not depict real world objects that actually exist now, but they are understood by the masses to mean: save, delete, add, remove, attach.
Road signs in the UK are very good at using what might be quite old fashioned or stereotypical depictions of places, but that leads you to understand in a heart-beat that to the left is a: picnic area, sports centre, car park, museum etc. Even though, the park, picnic area or museum doesn’t look like the depiction on the sign.
The important thing is that icon needs to spark understanding in the user of what you are intending them to do… perhaps the most stereotypical, or iconic… icon is the best. Perhaps kids today see the floppy to mean save, and not an old fashioned type of storage medium.
Navin Harish
on 05 Feb 14Maybe it can be replaced by a tied up garbage bag, or maybe a garbage compactor truck. Windows has replaced it with a bin but I don’t feel a shiny glass bin is representative enough for a garbage bin, maybe one made of wire mesh would be more appropriate.
Blair
on 07 Feb 14I thought Windows Vista solved this already.
This discussion is closed.