[hackshack]

Between this, and icon-only toolbars and ribbons, I think we're reinventing Chinese, badly. Ideographic characters can often convey meaning succinctly.

My vote is to either go back to picture icons, or use Chinese characters with localized pronunciation, so 車 or 车 is car, and so on.

[adastra22]

Chinese is not in any way ideographic unless you are already partially literate.

[thfuran]

If you put the history of the orthography in reverse, it looks like someone getting good at drawing.

[SahAssar]

It's still ideographic but not legible, right?

Just like most software icons are not legible without prior knowledge like arrow down mean to save, a circle with a line mean power on/off, etc. Both are ideographic, and I guess some software icons might be a bit more pictographic (like a cogwheel meaning settings because you are interacting with the machine).

[DiogenesKynikos]

They are of you go far enough back. This is what 车 looked like around 1000 BC: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E8%BB%8A-oracle.svg...

[cyberax]

So... Like the current icon set? E.g. how is a picture of a gear connected to "Settings"?

[Y_Y]

That's a bit harsh, I'd say no less than 80% of HN commenters are partially literate.

[im3w1l]

Icon - Ideographic character is a really interesting connection I've never seen made before that seems to capture what is going on. Don't agree with your conclusion to "use chinese characters" though. I don't think it's easy to tell what they depict.