我用Firefox有一年左右的时间了，现在越来越觉得Firefox好，已经是我唯一的浏览器了。用Firefix前，主要使用Maxthon，觉得很不错，能过滤广告、丰富的鼠标手势、多标签式浏览等等，这些功能的确在易用性上将IE提高了一个层次。由于经常做网页的设计，免不了要装多个浏览器来验证页面的显示效果，开始时只是用Firefox验证页面，没有真正的用来浏览网页。

随着web2.0的流行，将很多以前桌面的应用放到了网上，比如收藏夹用了del.icio.us、邮件用了Gmail等等，个性化的应用越来越多。这时候也就更需要个性化的浏览器。Firefox正好非常适合。Firefox有一个很好的壳，对W3C的标准支持较好、有很强的扩展性等等优势。

我在办公室用台式机，不能带回家，收藏夹的共享成了一直困扰的问题，直到用上了Firefox的del.icio.us插件。所有收藏的内容都在del.icio.us上，通过插件本地打开收藏夹，和浏览器的收藏夹用起来差不多，而且更方便。从此，Firefox成了我的主要浏览器。

随着使用的深入，开始寻找更多插件来弥补和Maxthon的差距，发现通过插件，可以实现Maxthon的所有主要更能。现在我常用的插件有二十几吧，用起来的确分方便。而且是其他浏览器不可替代的。有些是增加功能，有些提高易用性，有些提供酷炫的效果。以后再详细介绍一下有特色的插件吧。

Firefox也不是完美的，由于为了安全性，禁止ActiveX的运行，导致了很多需要使用ActiveX的网站不能使用，主要就是各银行网站、淘宝等等，略有不方便。当然用 IE Tab插件可以临时用IE内核来浏览，变相这个问题绕过去了。还有，很多网页设计是在IE的环境中开发的，其中有些JS和CSS在Firefox不能运行或显示效果不正常，这时也只用切到IE了。不过随着Web2.0和标准网页设计的普及，以及Firefox占有量的提升，设计者对Firefox的关注已经放到与IE同等重要的位置，新的网站几乎不再出现显示效果不同的问题了。

推荐不是单纯上网看看新闻的用户尝试使用Firefox吧！

• Firefox官方网站：http://www.mozillaonline.com/
• FIrefox下载：http://download.mozilla.org/…

It is much easier to criticize somebody else’s work than to create something cool yourself. But if you apply a systematic approach to criticizing, make a numbered list and prepare illustrations, it will be regarded as a fully-fledged analysis! In my opinion, icon design is undergoing a transitional period. On the one hand, screen resolutions are increasing, hence enhancing icons. On the other hand, we still have good old pixels. Icons sized 16×16 and even smaller are still widely used. And so, here are the most commonly observed mistakes in icon design…

1. Insufficient differentiation between icons
图标之间没有明显的差异化（太相似，难以辨识）；

Sometimes within one set of icons, we have icons that look alike and it is very hard to understand what is what. If you miss the legends, you can very easily get the icons mixed up.

Icons from the Utilities section in Mac OS X. I am always getting them confused and launching the wrong application.

The problem is aggravated by having small size icons displayed on screen.

2. Too many elements in one icon
在一个图标中设计了太多的元素（windows vista的图标是反面教材）

The simpler and more laconic the icon, the better. It is preferable to keep the number of objects in a single icon to a minimum.

Nevertheless, Microsoft’s designers, inspired by the new format of icons featured in Windows Vista, decided to go big and drew bloated icons to justify their bloated budget:

Each icon presents us with a mini-story with an intertwined plot. The problem is that in small size you are unable to work out what is depicted. Even in larger sizes, it is not always that easy to decipher the icons.

3. Unnecessary elements
加入不必要的元素

An icon should be easy to read. The fewer elements it has, the better. It is better if the whole image is relevant and not only part of it. Therefore, you have to pay attention to the context of using icons.

Let us take for instance some database icons:

At first glance everything looks alright.

But if this application (or a separate toolbar) deals only with databases, we can (and should) remove the unnecessary part:

The sense is not lost here but the icons become much more discernible.

Here is a real-life example of unnecessary elements occurring in BeOS 5 icons:

Ticks here are absolutely superfluous. By the way, why are they done in red?

4. Lack of unity of style within a set of icons
一套图标中的图标统一性不足（颜色主题，透视角度，尺寸，绘图技法等）

It is a unity of style that unites several icons into a set. The uniting property can be any of the following: color scheme, perspective, size, drawing technique or a combination of several such properties. If there are only a few icons in the set, the designer can keep some rules in his head. If there are many icons in the set and there are several designers working on them (for instance, icons for an operating system), then special instructions are created. Such instructions describe in detail how to draw an icon so that it fits straight into the set.

A multitude of styles in the shell32.dll file in Windows XP. This is the default set of icons suggested to a user wishing to change an icon.

5. Unnecessary perspective and shadows in small icons
在小图标中（24X24以下）使用不必要的透视和阴影

Progress does not stand still: interfaces have gained the potential to display semi-transparent objects, lost the limitation on the number of colors and there is now a trend towards 3D icons. But is it really all that useful? Not always! Especially if we are talking about icons sized 16×16 or smaller.

For example, let us take the application manager from GNOME 2.2.0 (RedHat 9):

Perspective in icons of such minute size is unnecessary and even counter-productive.

And here is the application manager from Windows XP:

As standard, icons in Windows XP are given a two-pixel black shadow; but in 16×16 size the shadow appears too large and makes the icons look dirty. The Address Book icon looks especially bad in this set.

6. Overly original metaphors
过于原始隐喻（比如将回收站设计成碎纸机的样式）

Selecting what is to be displayed in an icon is always a compromise between recognizability and originality. Before a metaphor (image) is developed for an icon it is wise to see how it is done in other products. Maybe the best solution lies not in coming up with something original but rather in adopting the existing solution.

An example of excessive originality is the bin icon in OS/2 Warp 4, which is not actually a bin at all but a shredder.

Another problem with choosing a shredder is that there is no one well-known type of shredder out there. The icon appears very much like a printer with an octopus hidden inside. What is more, it is absolutely unclear how a full bin would be displayed according to this metaphor.

7. National or social characteristics not being taken into account
国家区域和文化特征没有被考虑进设计中

It is always necessary to take into account the conditions in which your icon is going to be used. An important aspect here is national characteristics. Cultural traditions, surroundings and gestures can differ radically from country to country.

Let us suggest that we need to draw an icon for working with e-mail. It makes perfect sense to use a metaphor of real paper mail. A mailbox for example.

These images are courtesy of the Wikipedia article entitled Post box.

The answer can be found in the manual on creating icons for Mac OS X: “Use universal imagery that people will easily recognize. Avoid focusing on a secondary aspect of an element. For example, for a mail icon, a rural mailbox would be less recognizable than a postage stamp.”

The idea of using a stamp is great but the use of the eagle red-tailed hawk image is definitely questionable.

However, you need to account not only for national features… That reminds me of something funny. Once, we needed an icon for a data filter, which is often portrayed using the metaphor of a funnel. It was drawn like this:

The client’s response was as follows: “I do not really understand why for a filter, you drew an icon shaped like a Martini glass!”

8. Images of real interface elements in icons
在图标中使用纯界面化的元素（比如泛滥的mac aqua效果，用户会认为你的产品是苹果的产品）

The manual on creating icons for Mac OS X warns us: “Avoid using Aqua interface elements in your icons; they could be confused with the actual interface.” But all in vain! For instance, take a look at the following icon:

You reach out to click on the radio button but end up clicking the whole icon!

Here is an interesting example from the OmniWeb browser interface:

Pay attention to the Previous and Next buttons, a rare type of button with legends underneath. Oops! They are not buttons at all, they are icons!

9. Text inside icons
在图标内部使用文字（特别是不容易辨识的）

This mistake is commonly seen in application icons. Clearly the first thing that comes to mind when working on an application icon is to adapt the application’s logo. What is so bad about the text inside the icon? Firstly, it is directly language-related and so impedes localization. Secondly, if the icon is small, it is impossible to read the text. Thirdly, in the case of application icons, this text is repeated in the name of the application.

10. Outside the pixel framework
图标外部边缘没有做像素化处理

As a rule, this problem occurs if you use a vector editor for drawing icons. In large size everything looks pretty and clear; but in reality the icons are small, and under rasterization anti-aliasing frets the objects’ borders.

• 本文引自：http://turbomilk.com/truestories/cookbook/criticism/10-mistakes-in-icon-design/