What in the World is a Floppy Disk?

Let us play a game. Can you guess what each icon in the picture below means?

Answer (top left to bottom right):
Save, Call, TV, Voicemail

If you guessed it correctly, then congratulations! But before you clap yourself on the back for correctly guessing all the meanings, stop and ponder this: Can you explain why each of these icons mean what they mean?

You probably have no clue what some of these symbols actually are. But no worries -- the rest of this post is all about the forgotten history of these iconic icons, the concept of semiotics, and why we these icons are both familiar and unfamiliar to the majority of us.

In the excerpt from Messages, Signs, and Meanings: A Basic Textbook in Semiotics and Communication, Marcel Danesi defines an icon as a sign "designed to represent a referent by simulation or resemblance." Understanding icons is important to iconicity, which utilizes the human's "perception...to recurrent patterns of color, shape, dimension, movement, sound, taste, etc" in order to evoke certain reactions. This is precisely the logic behind why we recognized the meaning of the icons above.

Iconicity begins in childhood development. According to Danesi, this begins when children recognize words such as "plop" to signify water dropping and gestures such as "pointing to something desired" to be used for practical purposes. In modern times, this extends to the use of the PC and mobile devices, which frequently use icons such as the four above to stand for particular actions. Thus, we are conditioned to recognize the icons above by our frequent use of their actions.

Real floppy disks, the
predecessor of USB drives

Now, what are these icons actually depicting? The first is a floppy disk, a storage device developed in the 1960s and no longer used today. The second is an old-fashioned landline phone. The third is a TV with rabbit ears, or antennas. Modern TVs are typically flatscreen and indistinguishable from modern desktop computers, so perhaps this is the reason why the old TV icon has persisted. The last is supposed to remind the user of rolls of film or cassette tape.

Icons such as these are antiquated, but they have not lost their meaning -- yet. The excerpt from Danesi's book talks a bit about signification, and the problem of the "looping pattern" in which words are used to define other words, which leads to an incompleteness. These icons seem to have this problem too. For example, a floppy disk symbol means "save" and "save" means a floppy disk symbol.

So, what should we do with these relic icons? Some have suggested replacing them. Already, the idea of replacing the "Save" icon is a popular topic of discussion amongst web designers. Some suggestions include the ones seen on the left.

Personally, I prefer the original. But perhaps in time, these popular but outdated icons will become replaced as we cater to a new generation with different semiotics.