Please change the filter icon back to what it was, this seems like a change for no reason and likely cause more confusion in the long run. The funnel is well established as an icon for a filter.
You might want to vote for your own topic. I agree. Using the same icon for two different functions is confusing.
2 Likes
It’s funny how the argument includes that the funnel icon is totally clear about its function but nevertheless it’s necessary to call it the “filter funnel” 
Though I agree that the same icon for online search and filter is not clear either. Can we maybe find something better?
Maybe a more “filtery” funnel like @Simon_Arnold3 had in one of his screenshots?
or a combination
Or distinguishing them in another way, say, online search
and local search
3 Likes
I had to remove a vote from another feature suggestion in order to vote for this one because I feel that strongly about it.
A funnel means a Filter function to me and a magnifying glass means a Search function - and never the twain should meet.
What do kids learn in Chemistry these days? In my day, a funnel and a filter paper were essential tools of the trade…
10 Likes
Nothing apparently in the US:
2 Percent of High School Students Taking Chemistry Prior to Graduation, 1996 to 2006
I had Chemistry in high school for IIRC 6 years and 2 semesters at university, and I can’t recall to have ever filtered through a funnel.
Clearly we are of different generations. Health and Safety has a lot to answer for…
I’m 55 FWIW
1 Like
And I’m 75 - a different generation indeed…
Filter coffee machines tend to be a funnel shape.
As for chemistry Geoff is right. Google filtration biggest hits
Well we may have learned other things. Just like with the floppy icon
Just because chemists use a funnel with a filter doesn’t mean that the average person necessarily equates a detail-free funnel icon (looking like a triangle with an appendix) with a filter.
Coffee filters don’t look the same at all.
Edit: nor is „filtration“ the word that comes to mind IMHO when narrowing the display of albums by name, so what Google finds for „filtration“ isn’t necessarily relevant.
This needs some actual user research to do right
Well I dont see magnifying glass being used ever for a filter. There are alternatives to the funnel which I have seen in some apps, Some fine examples here from Adobe
1 Like
Yes we have been through this in the other thread. These icon designers still think that a floppy means save, so what they believe isn’t necessarily what the average user understands
Not sure I have met anyone who doesnt understand what the filter icon is or what its use is for.
But isn’t the point that they represent two different functions, so why on earth are we using the same icon for both?
3 Likes
Microsoft Office for instance uses a magnifying glass to look for text in a document, though they call it „find“ and neither search nor filter. But what it does is the same as „filter“ in Roon
Just done a poll in my office everyone knows and says should be a funnel. They all laughed when I told them afterwards about this change.
I already said that the same icon is probably not the best idea
find and search are the same function they choose to call it find in text editors, sorry but that doesnt change the overall function of what its doing.
Well one argument here was that search is online and should be the glass, while filter is supposedly something completely different for which nobody ever uses the glass.
However, the function in Office is precisely the same as filter, and they use the glass - but call it find.
Anyway, it’s a complicated thing and has been unsolved for decades, there’s nothing more I can contribute.
Edit:
Chrome and the Wikipedia app uses the magnifying glass and a piece of paper for „Find on page“, which also is the essentially same functionality as „filter“.
Maybe that’s a way out. „Search“ and the magnifying glass for global search including the internet. And avoiding the whole term „filter“ and call it „find in this view“ with this icon