An icon for "pass"?

[colinmegill]

Currently, Polis does not have an icon for pass, only for agree and disagree. Thanks to the team at https://twitter.com/netwerkdem for raising this. Since I was about to respond to them, I decided to respond publicly to bring in broader perspectives and document my thoughts.

This button does a lot of work. It might signal:

• I don't know.
• I don't have an opinion.
• I need more information.
• I don't want to answer.
• This comment is making me think too hard and I want to move on.
• I abstain.
• I have secret thoughts.
• It is simply the case that agree and disagree do not fit my intentions for this comment.
• I both agree and disagree.
• This comment contains multiple ideas.
• I don't feel strongly.
• This isn't that important to me.

I can't think of an icon that hits all of these. Specifically, I don't want to discourage people from using this as a catch-all by accidentally signaling one of these. By default, we'll leave it as is because people seem to use it a lot, and thus we understand it to have significant utility as is (ie., we do not believe people are not presently confused, and optimizing it for one use case may in fact be overfitting to that use case).

Contenders for the icon, from my mood board:

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 

https://emojipedia.org/twitter/twemoji-13.0.1/person-shrugging/

I don't presently believe any of these do a solid job at all of the above tasks (and there may be many more — the point of having a catch all also functions to sharpen what agree and disagree mean, thus keeping it general does even more work).

[ThenWho]

How about something like that? It can be drawn in the same style as our current agree/disagree.

5 (a)& (b)

I don't think we'll ever capture all of these uses 🙂. But one danger that I see is, if the icon is specific enough like the above, may give the wrong impression. Namely that the participant skips the statement temporarily, only to find it popping up later, which is not correct.

[patcon]

Used mod privileges and added numbers here, so easily to reference :)

I totally see why this has been something avoided. Balance is hard.

Thanks for spelling out all those clear reasons, Colin. Worth moving to knowledgebase too? Seems the sorta subtle thing one usually only learns from years of experience. I've seen lots of em myself, but kinda surprising to see it all laid out.

Hot-take order of pref 😄 : 5b > 5a > 4 > 2 > 3 >> 1

• 4 and 2, including faces, feel like they risk prompting people to align with a specific emotional response. 2 being all face, feels more likely to prompt people to only click if emotion matches.
• 1 just feels too unfamiliar and confusing imho
• 3 feels the most meh
• 5 (hopping arrow) was more what i had in mind, to match how I understand it and explain it

Random thoughts:

• feels more important to signify the act of "moving past" (without acting/responding) rather than hinting at any specific reason why. this is why giorgos' connected with me.
• nice if it also comes in a [outlined] circle, and if can work outside circle too
• would be nice if something that had a standard emoji analog fit the bill (e.g., ⏭️ ), to stand-in when typing/communicating elsewhere

Found similar icon to Giorgos' on noun project:

6. 
7. 

My alt suggestion: similar to (5-7), repurpose the "skip" icon (noun project search results) that ppl know from youtube (and VCRs???)

8. 

[ThenWho]

The skip icon (8) is perfect. It just makes sense. And I think covers most, if not all, of Collin's use cases - making me a liar when I said that we'll never capture all of them 🙂 .

It might be preferable to not put an icon at all (I'm still partial to that), but if we do, the skip icon fits the bill like a glove.

PS: I like this minimalist skip button with one triangle better than the standard two-triangle version. I think it conveys the message just fine and looks better in smaller size.

[patcon]

+1 on being open to no icon

+1 on single arrow pref (bummer that emoji seem to all have double arrow)

[colinmegill]

Interesting!

✅ agree 🚫 disagree ⏭ skip

[colinmegill]

I don't think anyone would confuse that. Skip may be even less ambiguous in multi-language situations. @ThenWho what about your language context? How do pass and skip stack up?

[ThenWho]

Skip icon and word are perfect for me, and I suspect work across many cultures. I dare say even more than the English word 'pass'.

The thing I like the most is that I associate it with purpose : I skip to something, whereas "I pass" to nowhere in particular. In this context, makes me want to keep looking for a statement I agree with.

[colinmegill]

I also like skip in that it embodies 'any reason for doing so'

[kerrickstaley]

I like these two designs because they fit with the aesthetic of the existing agree/disagree circles. One downside is that they don't carry meaningful information like the "skip" icon options do.

9. 
10. 

[patcon]

Thanks @kerrickstaley! I agree that the symmetry of all circles is pretty tempting :)

[ThenWho]

I like the empty circle, but as you say @kerrickstaley, it gives me no sense of purpose or context.

As for the design consideration, I agree completely: we need to have a uniform style, and the circle is part of that. I feel confident though that eg the skip sigil or any other can be easily made like that.

[colinmegill]

@kerrickstaley I'm not sure those don't carry meaning. Contextually, an empty circle could be at least loosely associated with 'no action' or 'no position given that the style of the other icons is also a circle. Nice thought.

Pointing out that we use circles, and considering 'skip' as terminology does bring to mind another visual:

[Annedezeeuw]

Dear all thank you for this great conversation! We are currently struggling how to translate 'pass' into Dutch while capturing all meanings that are listed at the start of this conversation. In our Polis testrun users indicated that they were unsure about the third voting option and did not feel inclined to use it.
To make 'pass' more intuitively visible as an option to vote for we wondered whether adding a symbol of a question mark would help. Reading the above suggestions, I guess the skip symbol is also very fitting. Figure 8 works very well.

What do people think about a grey circle with a question mark in it? It is also very universal.

Example:

[ThenWho]

I think the question mark is universal enough but fails to encapsulat a few of Collin's uses, at the top - e.g. "I don't want to answer."

@Annedezeeuw can you tell a bit more on how you would translate 'pass' in Dutch for your usage? (Perhaps with a counter translation in English too 🙂 , but I still think the Dutch word will help the conversation)

[Annedezeeuw]

Yes definitely. Translations that came up are:

• onzeker (unsure)
• overslaan (skip)
• neutraal (neutral)
• geen mening (no opinion)
• ik weet het (nog) niet (I don't know (yet))

The literal translation 'pas' is not a word commonly used in Dutch, except in card games..
In our first try out we used 'onzeker', but it does not capture the usage completely. After this discussion here, I think we should choose for 'overslaan' (skip).

[Annedezeeuw]

And try to explain users in a simple way what it entails. This could be with a symbol or an infographic. See attached an example.
Very interested how others deal with this.

[patcon]

This is stellar feedback about your language @Annedezeeuw <3

And loving the infographic. Seeing how you've laid out the icons makes me realize how helpful icons can be for supporting graphics

I like the question mark more than some options here, but you've helped me realize that "skip" feels most portable across locales, given that media interfaces have pushed an unambiguous meaning and icon into all languages over the past 20 years :)

[ThenWho]

I agree with @patcon : awesome feedback. Many thanks @Annedezeeuw ! Love the infographic-like explanation poster. I think something like that is needed in most Pol.is conversations, to allow participants to jump in with reduced uncertainty re: the process.

In your case I think 'onzeker' would be more appropriate, or perhaps something like 'prefer to not say'.. ?

Actually, I wish wording and icons could be changed by admins when setting up a pol.is convo. What do you think @colinmegill and @patcon? Maybe something for the pipeline? Or would be too detrimental to a unified UX?

[ThenWho]

Reflecting on 'skip' again, and on what you wrote @patcon:

I like the question mark more than some options here, but you've helped me realize that "skip" feels most portable across locales, given that media interfaces have pushed an unambiguous meaning and icon into all languages over the past 20 years :)

I think 'skip' gives you a sense of flow in the process - like you're listening to music, and it's ok to not listen to all songs in your play list, just move to the next. At the end of the day, you can still compare notes with your friends and exchange recommendations, find out which music genre you 'belong to', etc. ➡️ I think it is the correct paradigm here.

'Pass' on the other hand reminds me of a classic poll - something to do when you really have to, and you don't expect anything to come back to you. You do as a chore and then promptly forget about it. This is the problem I'm having with most of the alternatives.

Maybe the poll paradigm is good to orient people jumping in for the first time, but stands against a lot of pol.is features (e.g. reminder emails to come back etc).

[colinmegill]

@ThenWho for the avoidance of doubt, we would never make the voting options configurable except in the case of accurate and standardized translations, for a host of reasons. They are essential to the core of the platform.

[ThenWho]

Thanks for being crystal clear Collin! I think it's very good that it's spelled out, for my benefit and others' 💯

[colinmegill]

@Annedezeeuw thanks so much! It seems like we're on the right track here.

We already have / Unsure, we could keep it, since onzeker is likely to have an analog in every language as well. I don't mind keeping two words.

⏭ Skip / Unsure
➡️ Skip / Unsure
⏩ Skip / Unsure

[ThenWho]

+1 for this ⏩ flavor (didn't realize skip came in it).

[patcon]

ambivalent on specific emoji used to stand in for icon, but having the vertical bar with some sort of arrow(s) in the actual icon -- like in (8) -- feels like the hallmark of the skip symbol

EDIT: on second thought, my personal pref not to be trusted. Maybe worth user testing to see what ppl's assumptions are, but prob shouldn't let myself have any pref about it :)

[ThenWho]

Either way is OK with me. The vertical line suggests an end to the process, which I don't like, but it's definitely more iconic (pun unintended).

(No preference towards emojis btw, just liked the neat two triangles🙂)

[patcon]

Some from existing icon sets, in case we wish to use them:

From material design

check_circle_outline	block	skip_next

From font-awesome

check-circle	ban	step-forward

[Annedezeeuw]

So I have shared these ideas in the Code for NL community and here is some of the feedback:

1. 'I don't know' and 'I don't want to share my opinion' feel like fundamentally different voting options. In Dutch election compasses there are (based on research) always two options next to agree and disagree: 'no opinion' or 'non of the two'
2. 'Skip' feels like you will encounter the statement later on again, which is not the case in Polis
3. To capture all the definitions of this third voting option we might want to use a broader term like 'Other' (Anders) and/or 'Neutral' (neutraal).
   Turns out the skip emoticon has brought us right back into the fundamental issue of choosing the right word/translation :)

[patcon]

Thanks!

1. Good point. Could theoretically have more buttons for UX, and they just all use same value (0) in the math. But also feels like one-button should be possible. Feels like a neat a/b testing scenario, if we had the ability to run tests.
2. Good point. That's prob a big distinction with "pass" vs "skip". While I can see ambiguity, plenty of precedent for skip that never returns. Skip in board games comes back around, but skip in media (i.e. youtube, playlists, etc) just moved on. Thinking might just require one-time run-through to resolve ambiguity.
3. Heh seems so :)

Speaking of boardgames, we could find a widely translated and popular card-/board-game which uses the word we end up preferring, and then borrow its chosen translation across languages 🤷

[ThenWho]

Thanks for the feedback @Annedezeeuw ! It's good to have a lot and diverse opinions on the table.

1. Indeed these two are very different, but I think this is the case with most of @colinmegill 's original list. The way this third 'pass' option is used in practice is "absense of vote", and this is how all of these wordings connect at the roots. So in a sense it's not an option to be accurately reflected in some wording or not. The important thing is to convey to the participant that "it's ok to go to the next one". Which brings us to...
2. ..the 'skip' icon. You have a point there, it might mean that. From that point of view the empty circle (9) might better express this "absense of vote". On the other hand, there is no reason a green tick should mean "agree" or a red forbidding traffic sign to mean "disagree", so you know, there is that 🙂 .
3. Indeed we did 🙂 . I'll just point out Collin's earlier comment about non-parameterizable voting options, in terms of both icons and text. Which means that one translation needs to be found, and only one. Which in turn means compromises need to be made.. 🙂

We'll never be able to convey all possible meanings, or change the text based on a case by case basis, and that's okay. Let's do the best we can!

[kerrickstaley]

Does anyone know which translation is being used in Taiwan?

@Annedezeeuw in Taiwan they use the English version of the UI, e.g. https://polis.gov.tw/8dspx97ybf

[patcon]

Thanks @kerrickstaley! I'm actually a bit surprised if it's not auto-detected, as our browser tests use this sorta format to see whether translations work: https://polis.gov.tw/8dspx97ybf?ui_lang=zh-tw

It's a bit of hidden magic (no UI selector, but just uses browser settings), but are you sure that preferred browser language doesn't force polis into localized versions?

[kerrickstaley]

@patcon yes, that's probably what happened. My system language is set to English, so even though I was participating on the Taiwanese Polis instance from a Taiwanese IP, I got the English version.

[fredrikoviedo]

I'm new to the game but this is what I came up with playing around with the voting actions and icons from "icons 4 design":

A. Question mark (?) as someone suggested, I like it better than skip icon >| because it's less technical and catches a bigger "unsure"-domain.

B1. Happy face, Sad face and Neutral face which creates a nice set of comparable symbols. I also get a subtle feeling of joy when I am expected to convey my standpoint with the help of emojis. It kind of makes me connect with my gut feeling, which combined with my rational thoughts may result in a more "complete" vote.

B2. Just added a slightly lighter gray button-border to more clearly communicate a statement's possible actions. I remember I found it a bit unclear what was expected of me when reading my first statement since there were other interaction elements too.

Sorry if I offended someone! :)

[patcon]

@fredrikoviedo's comment got me thinking... instead of hoping that each language has a perfect word that captures all the meanings we know that pass can... perhaps we could choose a UI element that allows an arbitary number of words/options, without breaking the UI. The perk of this approach is that multiple words might allow multiple icons.

Examples of this might be something like GitHub's multi-option buttons:

Or perhaps a button that changes like a carousel.

Or perhaps the trick is to figure out ways to fit up to "x" number of separate buttons into the UI, which all code to "zero" in the underlying math. Languages that need more strings, use them.

To be honest, I think most of these ideas are bad :) But I also think using a single string/icon is bad, because it leaves to chance that non-english language speakers will be tipped off to the full extent of purpose within the option.

Since the use of pass is so important to the emergent forms of participation in a Polis conversation (and not every language can have the same nuance as an english "pass"), it feels better that a UI accommodates an expansive set of options, which all code to "zero" in the underlying matrix