Upgrade StorageNew Zotero icon in Firefox 29+ (4.0.20)
(Moved from https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/36409/zotero-icon-in-firefox-29-and-higher/ )
I'm not sure that monochrome icon for Zotero is the way to go. It doesn't look like that's the general trend (so far at least) with other add-ons. This makes Zotero icon quite hard to see/find and it looks like it's disabled (since for other addons monochrome icon appears only when disabled). Additionally, even Firefox's native icons are not always monochrome: the star turns blue when a page is bookmarked, the download arrow turns green when a file is downloaded.
I think that Zotero should stick with the red icon.
I'm not sure that monochrome icon for Zotero is the way to go. It doesn't look like that's the general trend (so far at least) with other add-ons. This makes Zotero icon quite hard to see/find and it looks like it's disabled (since for other addons monochrome icon appears only when disabled). Additionally, even Firefox's native icons are not always monochrome: the star turns blue when a page is bookmarked, the download arrow turns green when a file is downloaded.
I think that Zotero should stick with the red icon.
We're really just following Mozilla's lead here. If you switch into Customize mode you can see all of the new Australis icons for both the toolbar and the menu panel, all of which are in monochrome with a particular gradient, which we've done our best to replicate. (Yes, some turn other colors in exceptional states, but they're all monochrome in their default states. We've actually discussed adding a red error icon to this icon to show sync errors when the Zotero pane is closed.)
I'm fairly skeptical of the monochrome icon trend in general — I think there are contexts where it makes a lot of sense (media viewers/editors) and others where it's detrimental to usability (most other places) — but when a platform sets a pretty clear aesthetic example, as Mozilla has done, I think being a good platform citizen might require following their lead.
For what it's worth, while we were working on this I mocked up a version with our red Z:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mddxnzkribrzxfy/zotero_z_red.png
I think it's pretty cute, but it doesn't seem particularly neighborly.
I completely understand why you went with monochrome. I'm not a fan of monochrome trend either, since I find it less user friendly, which is why I wish Zotero would not follow it. Would obviously be nice to hear what other Zotero users think. Perhaps I'm the outlier here.
One other note, looking at your example, is that the shade and gradient of Mozilla's icons are different on different OSes, and our current one is apparently more faded than the Windows set, which isn't helping. Here's what it looks like on OS X:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lod1gc30usi817u/zotero_z_mono.png
(It's still slightly off, but we couldn't find any documentation on Mozilla's icons.)
It's also worth considering how many Zotero users actually have other add-ons installed. I'd guess that it's a pretty small minority (though maybe higher now that Standalone exists). Though, now that I mention it, I guess I'm not sure whether that's an argument for or against a monochrome icon. I'm actually more concerned with this question in terms of the Zotero toolbar, which obviously badly needs updating for the modern age (and high-res displays). We haven't decided what to do there, but I don't think the arguments in favor of monochrome icons apply particularly well to Zotero itself, since the "content" is less separable from the program itself. However, I think a web browser's toolbar can reasonably be put in the category of places where monochrome buttons make sense.
I think the best argument in favor of color is that Zotero is essentially a self-contained program within Firefox. In other words, even if an extension that just added a feature to the browser should probably follow the new look, something like Zotero shouldn't.
My example may be useful, includes Lastpass and Addblock icons, both red, on either side of Zotero (on Ubuntu). Before reading this thread, I actually assumed the Zotero one was grey because I have Standalone open, reverting to red when active.
In addition to some of the examples mentioned earlier I also have the following extensions: Citavi Picker icon, which is always colorful and GreaseMonkey icon, which is colorful if activated (seems to have some problem at the moment).