Update PLP nav button icon

[chucklorenz]

Is the PLP icon used on the nav bar ready for a makeover?

Over the years it has been reported that some learners don't recognize what it stands for. Now, with the new addition of nav button labels, there should be no misunderstanding. Just put the word "Progress" below it and we're good to go, right?! Well, labels are a welcomed addition, but perhaps the icon can be improved, too.

• The current icon might be too literal.

  • Someone seeing it for the first time might see the shape as a pill/capsule and not as a progress bar.
  • Increasing the percent filled would make it look more like a progress bar.
  • Someone who recognizes it as a progress bar can mistake it for a real-time indicator of their progress rather than a button.

• There are a number of ways that real-time progress can be communicated: progress pill/bar, progress pie, tick, numeric percents, etc. (Adapt devs are discussing mixing these icons. Replace progress bars with icons in certain cases #181) There will be times when the PLP nav button does not visually imitate the real-time indicators.

• Does the PLP nav button have to imitate a real-time indicator used in the course? Can we find an icon (or several as does the Language Picker) that broadly communicates "progress" or "completion" or "achievement" or however one conceptualizes what is being measured?

• Here are a variety of icons that step away from trying to imitate a literal progress bar. Well, except the one that is a more stylized version. It's included to show how our current button icon might be improved to lessen the confusion with a real-time indicator. Some of the icons below are included to spur new thinking.

(Personally, I'm drawn to a tick in an unfinished circle. A tick communicates "done" to me. And I think that is the basic question addressed by PLP: "Am I done yet?")

Thoughts??

[oliverfoster]

Whatever happens with it, my concern is in having a uniform visual language for progression, completion and correctness.

We currently have a lozenge which represents progression and completion for:

• PLP button
• PLP item
• Menu item
• Title

And we have ticks and crosses for correctness on:

• Question buttons

Progression - Something isn't finished

Everyone seems to agree the lozenges are bad but there is no settled alternative. Something circular is always a preference for at least the PLP button, or a text based representation of the percentage. The PLP item lozenges have in some instances been replaced with ticks for completion.

Completion - Something is finished

There seems to be consensus on ticks instead of a full lozenge.

Correctness - Something is correct or incorrect and finished

Ticks and crosses seem the consensus - there is crossover with completion ticks which seems not to be of concern to anyone.