Official talks about circumstances about Microsoft's "Visual Studio Code" icon design which was the worst reputation

Microsoft's code editorVisual Studio Code"The logo revamped the logo in August 2017, although the base of the design is the same, the color changed from blue to orange in color. However, this change is too bad response from the user, "Orange is extremely awkward", "Productivity is affected in many ways"It is also criticized. It was announced that it will be returned to its original color on October 24, 2017 upon user 's reaction. At the same time, the process of "why the logo was changed to orange" was revealed.

The Icon Journey
https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2017/10/24/theicon

The Visual Studio Code icon before changing in August is like this.


And the icon after change is like this. The design is the same, but the color is blueOpposite colorIt is an orange change. According to the company's guidelines saying that there was a limitation such as "color is made single" has become a big issue.


"I appreciate passionate feedback, feedback was very beneficial and painful but it was funny.We should return the orange icon to blue and make it a green icon for Insider So I decided on Visual Studio Code that "Why the orange logo was made" on the blog.

In March 2017, the development team of Visual Studio had redesigned the icon representing the Visual Studio product family in order to make sense for many developer tools. Icons of each product must have visibility that can be distinguished at a glance, but the limitation of "making colors as single" according to the company's guidelines set as a big problem. The development team strove to make a better logo within the limits, and at the same time, he told the company to change the guidelines.

In the meantime, the following logo candidates were designed.


In the above logo, "This is no good" was the following logo. All of the logo of the product family had folds, but this logo became a part because there were no folds anywhere.


Especially, logo with infinity (∞) as a motif, he said that he worked many times. An infinite logo that is near the end of the user, which is likely to pierce the user ......


Logo etc with ceiling part.


By the middle of summer as well, when we saw "Icon fatigue" on the team, I decided to do a pre-release for Insider, saying "Is it OK with the current icon?" The logo for Insider is slightly different from that for general, but the color and shape base are the same.


The problem I understood at this time is that it becomes blurred and dull impression when the logo becomes smaller. Therefore, trial and error such as painting outlines with white and black and shadows were done.


Initially, before the Visual Studio Code existed, there was an online editor "Visual Studio Online Monaco" that can be used with Azure Web Apps. The Monaco logo isVisual Studio Team ServicesIt was designed to "borrow" the blue infinity symbol, but since there were many priorities when Visual Studio Code was released, it was said that the same logo design was used as Monaco about. Regarding this logo, the development team says, "There may be something to think about the new logo, but still the old logo was the worst of the task bar and dock." Therefore, when developing a new design, it seems that it was supposed to be "return borrowed things" and "enter new elements".


However, various colors are already used in the product family, and it is said that it was Orange that remained.Sublime TextAlso I used orange for my logo and it seems that Orange came up as a candidate color for icons when nobody complained about it even after testing.

So, when I tried a new color orange with a release for Insider, since the negative feedback was few even after 2 months, the development team decided that it was OK and released a new icon. Then, in a situation where many negative comments "Worst new logo" "Ugly" "Halloween?" Initially it is a development team who thought that "it would be nice to respond to individual problems", but gradually negative feedback accelerated, even from news media to high school friends negative to new logos It seems that it has come to be seen to show opinions.


As a result of adding feedback, "I tried too much to change from blue to orange" "To clarify the flat design logoNegative spaceThe team acknowledged that the problem was that the point that the border part was too big to be conspicuous than the symbol of infinity was a problem. And as I say "I'm home", I heard that I decided to go back to the familiar blue icon.


Actual software is displayed as follows.


The Insider version will continue to use the green icon, so we can now distinguish between Insider version and stable version only by color. In addition, the icon design itself was not flat design, but changed to a slightly shaded design.


The development team said, "Restoring the color from orange to blue does not solve all problems, but it is a step forward," and intends to continue to evolve the icon based on various ideas from now on. "I learned with difficulties how difficult it is to evolve and change the icon Thank you.Thank you that the person who likes the orange icon loves the blue icon more" is.