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Where Did the Facebook Thumbs Up Come From?

Soleio traces the Facebook thumbs up to glyphs Aaron Sittig had already drawn for ranking stories in News Feed. A hand felt native to Facebook, which already used gestures such as the poke icon, and human anatomy was a load-bearing idea for a symbol meant to last.

The News Feed team realized a down rank would help people see less of some stories. The thumbs up and thumbs down were one experiment among several, and the thumbs up started as a placeholder. Hearts and stars were tried as other expressions of a like. The thumbs up was the one that felt most native to Facebook and felt like the Facebook way. Soleio gets assigned far too much credit for the mark. News Feed gained commenting and likes, and a read-only screen checked once a day became a place for conversations, a complete Facebook session without leaving News Feed. The icon later had an outsized cultural impact he had never expected, for the feature or for Facebook. People concentrate energy on an icon once it stands for a company, a product, a service, and a way of doing things.

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Twiddling Bits with Susan Kare ·

First of Kind

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  1. Where Does Susan Kare Find Icon Ideas?Susan Kare finds icon ideas by looking at restaurant signage and traffic signage from all around the world, and by beachcombing for shells and things from the…
  2. How Did Susan Kare's Drawings First Appear on Screen?Susan Kare saw her drawings appear on a screen almost like a parlor trick, taken from paper and suddenly there.
  3. How Did Susan Kare Discover Graphic Design?Susan Kare discovered graphic design at 14, as a very junior part-time design assistant at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, a science museum.
  4. What Did Steve Jobs Tell Susan Kare About Twiddling Bits?Steve Jobs told Susan Kare she would twiddle bits for the rest of her life and never make more than $20,000, when she could be the creative director of a…
  5. How Much Did Paul Rand Charge Steve Jobs for the NeXT Logo?Paul Rand charged Steve Jobs $100,000 to design the NeXT logo, and he required a first-class flight, a nice hotel, and a presentation of the work.
  6. Why Does Susan Kare Still Work?Susan Kare still works because of a mortgage, and because it feels fun to be part of what is happening now in tech and a little AI.
  7. Has Susan Kare's Design Approach Changed?Susan Kare would not say her approach to design has turned upside down.
  8. Why Wasn't Apple's Software Group a Design Organization?Susan Kare was the only designer in a software group at Apple, so the group was not a design organization.
  9. Did Steve Jobs Say the Macintosh Team Would Remember Those Days?Susan Kare says Steve Jobs often said they were going to remember these days, and they did. She still remembers the early Macintosh work long after it.
  10. Is It Easier to Be the Best If You Are First?Soleio says it is easy to be amongst the best if you are amongst the first. He does not know if the best energy is an energy of youth.

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