So I found this article a few months back.
http://branch.com/b/redesigning-the-save-symbol-let-s-do-this
Basically the gist of it is that a bunch of designers are working on ‘redesigning’ the save symbol from the old 3 1/2″ Floppy Disk design to something else.
I was reading all the posts and wondering ‘Why are they even discussing this’. It’s true that when I’m working on a document, I automatically Command-S every few minutes, it’s almost as natural to me now as typing, but I sense that with the advent of Google Docs and other constant-save systems, the concept of manually saving to a disk will soon be a thing of the past.
If you’ve ever used google docs, the only thing you see is that the document self-saves every few seconds. When you go under the File menu, there isn’t even an option to save!
With this new functionality being built into our workflow, and cloud services and working in cloud becoming the norm, we simply won’t need to save anymore, we’ll just tag or choose where to store or work for retrieval later.
With the advent of Tagging in Windows and its forthcoming introduction in OS Mavericks, file folders don’t even really need to exist anymore. If we can associate and organize our content based on tag, and searches, then the last of the remnants of the skeuomorphistic idea of ‘files and folders’ (i.e. paper and cabinets) will soon be a thing of the past. Finally, we’ll be able to use a computer as a computer, instead of using a computer to replicate the real world.
This speaks to a more mature user base, one that understands that metaphors in the real world are no longer needed, that we’re finally grown up enough to use a computer.
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