The Hamburger Icon
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I worry that users will start calling it that. In the same way that 10 years ago people rarely said POTUS, almost nobody did, but now people say it constantly, especially in the media, and even more so in writing... often claiming the it's more clear, as if when speaking about the State of the Union address, for example, people may think they mean some other president. Actually I saw someone claim that without "POTUS" people would have to write news stories and say "President of the United States" over and over, because that's how people write.
I digress...
My point is giving cute or more weird names to already established things can never be good. People understand three lines is the menu icon, inherently, why it needs to be called "hamburger icon" is just beyond me and baffling. If, for no other reason than it doesn't even look like a damn hamburger in the least. If it were a hamburger, the top and bottom lines would be wider, but they're not. If anything it's a deck of cards, an air conditioner vent (original joke name), a list of items, etc.
Hamburger seems like a far reach and attempt to establish a cutesy standard where one need not apply at all, especially when we consider it doesn't match the description nor does it give one hamburgers anywhere it's used.
To me menu always seemed obvious, depending on the style of icon it seemed to either:
- Seem to be a list of things, perhaps submenu options
- Or is similar to a grip on animate objects, which makes sense, if it's on a phone you want to make it look like "your finger touches this."
Hamburgers? What in the heck?
Plus the icon already has a name, it's navicon, which fits with the other web icon name favicon. Let's not confuse things further.
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I posted a more extended version on my blog:
http://tonyshowoff.com/articles/hamburger-icon-the-illogical-and-unnecessary-name/
Shameless self promotion? You bet, but I think I lay out a good argument.
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I never had a name for it at all. Learned it from the BBC article.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I never had a name for it at all. Learned it from the BBC article.
Sorry, I thought you had brought it up before, but I mixed you up with someone else I think, weirdly. Anyway, I imagine I saw it on Spiceworks:
https://www.google.ae/search?q=hamburger+icon+site:community.spiceworks.com
What I love about this one:
http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/858053-hamburger-menus-love-or-hate
Nobody knows what the OP is talking about at first, so the identity of it being a "hamburger" really isn't apparent. And I posted on that thread, yet I have no memory of it.
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I googled "menu icon" from Google's Spanish site and the first thing that came up was "Hamburger".
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@scottalanmiller said:
I googled "menu icon" from Google's Spanish site and the first thing that came up was "Hamburger".
It's because of people creating a false standard, but what I say in my blog post I think stands, and in that thread and this one there's evidence that people don't see hamburger unless you tell them it first. It's just unnecessary.
I did the same with Russian, Hungarian, German, and Arabic, I don't get hamburger except for the iconfinder title stuffing with every alias of the icon. Following those though are typical references to just "menu icon" not hamburger. In fact in the arabic one, which is my default language, I got navicon a more often than hamburger.
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Appears to be the official name...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_button -
@scottalanmiller said:
Appears to be the official name...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_buttonThat says common name, not official name. The official name from the old days I think is "menu button," but they called it air vent. Also I just found apparently some people call it the "drawer icon."
Regardless, people associate it with menus, so if I tell someone "hit/click/tap the menu button" they'll almost certainly know what I mean before I say "hamburger button." I think it's just a really bad attempt at trying to apply cuteness to something unnecessarily. And the argument I've seen so far googling about it is that "hamburger is fun and easy to remember," true but only after you've heard it, if you're a regular person messing around, you'll associate it with menus, no matter what looks like to you, so someone saying "hamburger" is just bizarre. I make an argument on my blog post it's no different than calling bullets "M&Ms" because they're both round.
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It's even strange though finding things going back a year or two saying "hamburger icon" but before a month ago I don't recall anyone ever saying that, I've primarily heard "menu button" or "the thingy" a few times.
Perhaps i've fallen into an alternative universe, I have been messing around with my sliding machine.
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I first heard the term Hamburger menu about 8 months ago on Windows Weekly. While I don't get the name either, I'm sure the general public (once they hear it) will love it compared to navicon.
As @tonyshowoff mentioned, the use of POTUS is almost common now, ever since several primetime TV shows started using it. Once a few shows reference the hamburger icon, or hamburger menu it will definitely caught one.
Ultimately while we techies might not like it, it grants an easier way to talk to our constituents while getting our point across, and I consider that a good thing.
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@JaredBusch said:
@tonyshowoff said:
I always called it the menu icon, "hamburger icon" is weird to me, sounds like an emoji. In fact I don't recall ever seeing that until the first time I saw you say it.
I've never seen the term before either. I always call it the menu icon also.
I"ve not heard of it previously... weird.
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I've always known it as the hamburger icon, but I have heard that term and menu icon used interchangeably.
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@tonyshowoff said:
I posted a more extended version on my blog:
http://tonyshowoff.com/articles/hamburger-icon-the-illogical-and-unnecessary-name/
Shameless self promotion? You bet, but I think I lay out a good argument.
Fascist.
I've known about it for ages. Possibly because I'm hipper and more down with da kids than you lot.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@tonyshowoff said:
I posted a more extended version on my blog:
http://tonyshowoff.com/articles/hamburger-icon-the-illogical-and-unnecessary-name/
Shameless self promotion? You bet, but I think I lay out a good argument.
Fascist.
I've known about it for ages. Possibly because I'm hipper and more down with da kids than you lot.
I'd post my typical reply to being called a fascist but I can't on this forum, as it's more than a tad crass :x
It's really strange because I spent more than too much time googling around about this and there's a weird gap of people who have known this term for at least a couple of years and most people still don't know it as far as I can tell and are often confused/surprised by the terminology, though I've seen a lot of people who like it.
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Dodgiest looking hamburger I've ever seen.
And as such, I refuse to call it a hamburger icon.
For a start, where is the cheese?
More importantly, if it WAS a hamburger, I would have eaten it already. -
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@scottalanmiller said:
@nadnerB said:
For a start, where is the cheese?
That would make it a cheeseburger.
If it's a cheeseburger icon, is it kosher to click it?
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I don't eat hamburgers. Only cheeseburgers. I also always called it the menu icon.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@nadnerB said:
For a start, where is the cheese?
That would make it a cheeseburger.
Ah well, I'd probably still eat it.
