Bring back the filter funnel please

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.

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Itā€™s funny how the argument includes that the funnel icon is totally clear about its function but nevertheless itā€™s necessary to call it the ā€œfilter funnelā€ :wink:

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 ā€œfilteryā€ funnel like @Simon_Arnold3 had in one of his screenshots?
image

or a combination

image

Or distinguishing them in another way, say, online search
image
and local search
image

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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 tradeā€¦

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Nothing apparently in the US:

2 Percent of High School Students Taking Chemistry Prior to Graduation, 1996 to 2006

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264855930_State_Indicators_of_Science_and_Mathematics_Education_2007

I had Chemistry in high school for IIRC 6 years and 2 semesters at university, and I canā€™t recall to have ever filtered through a funnel.

Clearly we are of different generations. Health and Safety has a lot to answer forā€¦

Iā€™m 55 FWIW

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And Iā€™m 75 - a different generation indeedā€¦

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 doesnā€™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 donā€™t look the same at all.

Edit: nor is ā€žfiltrationā€œ the word that comes to mind IMHO when narrowing the display of albums by name, so what Google finds for ā€žfiltrationā€œ isnā€™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

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Yes we have been through this in the other thread. These icon designers still think that a floppy means save, so what they believe isnā€™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 isnā€™t the point that they represent two different functions, so why on earth are we using the same icon for both?

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Microsoft Office for instance uses a magnifying glass to look for text in a document, though they call it ā€žfindā€œ and neither search nor filter. But what it does is the same as ā€žfilterā€œ 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, itā€™s a complicated thing and has been unsolved for decades, thereā€™s nothing more I can contribute.

Edit:

Chrome and the Wikipedia app uses the magnifying glass and a piece of paper for ā€žFind on pageā€œ, which also is the essentially same functionality as ā€žfilterā€œ.

Maybe thatā€™s a way out. ā€žSearchā€œ and the magnifying glass for global search including the internet. And avoiding the whole term ā€žfilterā€œ and call it ā€žfind in this viewā€œ with this icon