I agree that finding an icon that universally means &quot;language&quot; is a hard task. <div>I thought about using different approaches and all can be misinterpreted:</div><div><ul><li>World globe</li><li>Bubble speech</li>
<li>A neutral flag (e.g., <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/davidtse916/R0FmtWc0aJI/AAAAAAAACY8/Z10TPVFupoc/s800/3.jpg">http://lh3.ggpht.com/davidtse916/R0FmtWc0aJI/AAAAAAAACY8/Z10TPVFupoc/s800/3.jpg</a>)</li><li>Sticky figure (e.g., <a href="http://imagecdn.maketecheasier.com/2011/11/settings-univeral-access.png">http://imagecdn.maketecheasier.com/2011/11/settings-univeral-access.png</a>)</li>
</ul><div>The good part is that by complementing the icon with the current language name, the user can get a better idea.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>The use of scripts to convey language is what Google Translate did with their icon: <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.translate">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.translate</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>The problem is that including several scripts will require to much detail for an icon. I tried to make a simplified version based on yours but trying to emphasize the idea of selection:</div><div><br></div>
<div><br><div><br></div><div><img src="cid:ii_1372dc7a6958a5c0" alt="Inline image 1"><br><div><br><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Pau</div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 10:33 PM, Brandon Harris <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:bharris@wikimedia.org" target="_blank">bharris@wikimedia.org</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><br></div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">	</span>We had a conversation the other day about how the concept of an icon that says &quot;change language&quot; was a . . . formidable . . . design challenge.  I mentioned that I&#39;d brought this up to the Design Guild a few months back, and we spent several hours talking about it.<div>
<br></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">	</span>They had some far-out concepts.  But the end boiled down to something like this:</div><div><br></div><div><img height="184" width="184" src="cid:D2ED761A-C6FF-4A40-9707-91C77DD19513"></div>
<div><br></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">	</span>Obviously, this is something I threw together in about 20 minutes. I pulled glyphs from the WP logo for it; the proportions are way off, and i don&#39;t know that it&#39;s going to work below 32 pixels.</div>
<div><br></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">	</span>Here&#39;s the thinking:</div><div><br></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">		</span>Indicating *languages* is next to impossible.</div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">		</span>Indicating *scripts* is less so.</div>
<div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">		</span>People will be more likely to recognize foreign scripts than foreign language names (e.g., if you don&#39;t speak a Latin script, &quot;English&quot;, &quot;Deutsch&quot;, and &quot;Italiano&quot; are going to look the same to you).</div>
<div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">		</span>Opposition research showed that most of the more intelligent switchers depend on script-recognition than actual word recognition.<br><div><br></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">	</span>Thoughts?  I&#39;m eager to think about this because I&#39;m working on the &quot;Wikipedia 2015&quot; designs, and it&#39;s important to have a handle on this for them.</div>
<div><br><div>---<br>Brandon Harris, Senior Designer, Wikimedia Foundation<br><br>Support Free Knowledge: <a href="http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate" target="_blank">http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate</a><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div>Pau Giner</div><div>Interaction Designer</div><div>Wikimedia Foundation</div><br>
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