Use Conventional Icons Where Appropriate

Suggestion

Following common icon conventions will greatly improve the user interface, especially for new users who may otherwise become frustrated and give up on SuperMemo.

Just as SuperMemo follows convention and uses a 3.5" disk as the icon for save controls, the user interface would be improved if SuperMemo followed icon conventions for other common software controls such as:

• Find and Search controls. Almost all software uses a magnifying glass icon for find and search controls. SuperMemo could follow this convention and eliminate the use of the binoculars icon.
• Task_icon_makes_no_sense._Make_it_a_checkbox.
• There are probably more current icons that could be replaced with conventional ones. These could be added to this list.

If conventional icons were implemented wherever possible, as almost all software uses them, the new icons would already be well known to both new and experienced users -- they are immediately recognizable and intuitive. If the binoculars were replaced with the near universally used magnifying glass, I doubt that any experienced user would be confused by the change and unable to find the search control. SuperMemo's user interface is a common target of complaints and drastic changes are often suggested. Making small/easy changes like these will work towards improving the user interface to a level where drastic change isn't so urgently demanded.