I have no idea what most of the "Activity Status" icons next to my squad member's names mean in Railjack

[(PSN)Unstar]

I can tell that the one that looks like Archwing wings probably means they're flying around in their Archwing, and I've got no idea what the others mean or what the images are supposed to represent.

[Prime]

 

 

[(PSN)Unstar]

Thanks, Prime!

Now that I can see them, I can offer some more specific feedback.  The most prevalent problem is that many of these aren't symbols/shapes that have any meaning to your typical human (or at least, they're inscrutable to me), with the secondary problem being icons that are a bit too ambiguous.

In trying to think of specific feedback for each individual icon, I had a realization: many of these icons have no meaning to me because I've never seen them before in any other context; they only appear next to player names in Railjack and nowhere else.  Because of this there's nothing for my brain to connect them to.  So part of making these icons more meaningful might be to simply expand their presence so that they can become naturally associated with what they are supposed to represent.

When a Tenno goes to interact with the pilot seat, gun turrets, forward artillery, forge or archwing slingshot, a prompt currently appears; adding these symbols to the existing prompts would help to create an association between these areas of the ship and these icons.  Similarly, these icons could be added to their corresponding areas on the mini-map and Tactical Map.  So that's one suggestion.

Individual iconography feedback:

• Pilot — I've never seen a shape like this before.  Suggestions:
  • silhouette of a Tenno body between the actual Railjack "control sticks"
  • the steering wheel of a real-world car
• Gunner — This one is good!  It's the shape of the gun turrets, very recognizable.
• Forward Artillery — Another unfamiliar shape.  Suggestions:
  • The Forward Artillery laser prepares the fire with very distinct visual of a set of lasers from specific angles connecting to fire in the center.  A silhouette emulating this "laser shape".
  • A silhouette of a laser cartoonishly ripping a Grineer Crewship in half (admittedly this one might be hard to create).
• Omni-tool — This one is good!  It looks like an Omni and it can't be mistaken for any of the other icons (unlike, for example, Pilot and Forge).
• Archwing — This is the best one.  Not only does it look like an Archwing, but the symbol is nearly identical to the Archwing symbol that I've been seeing in my Foundry for years.
• Objective — This one has a weird inverse problem.  Years of playing Warframe have made it clear that this is an objective symbol.  But what does it mean, Objective?  There are lots of objectives in a Railjack mission, from getting close to a Missile Platform to destroying radiators (both inside and outside).  When is this used and when is it not used?  Am I an Archwing, a Tenno, a Railjack...?  I don't understand the meaning.
• Forge — I'm unfamiliar with this shape.  This is admittedly a trick concept to make an icon for, though.  Suggestions:
  • The best idea I have is to put a resource on the left, then to its right an arrow pointing to the right, then to its right a bullet; in other words, a simple diagram showing resources being converted into usable goods.
• Fighting — I think this one is pretty good because it's recognizable as a gun, though when seen in-mission outside of the context of the entire list, it can be unclear whether this is meant to indicate Railjack Gunnery or Tenno small-arms.  That could be cleared up by making it a sword instead of a gun, since Railjacks don't have swords.  But also, I'm unsure whether this applies only to fighting on the Railjack itself or also to fighting out in the world, and that should probably be considered, too.
• Archwing Slingshot — With the words "Archwing Slingshot" next to this icon I see what you're trying to do, but without them it's unclear.  Suggestion:
  • An actual slingshot.
• Boarding — This looks like a jetpack to me, and it also looks like the part of the ship that I interact with to use the Forward Artillery.  EDIT: while reviewing this post I realized that this is a Crew Ship viewed from above.  I can't speak for others, but I don't usually view Crew Ships from above; generally it's the side.  So my suggestion would be a side-view of a Crew Ship.
• Unspecified — Does this just mean walking around?  If so this works for that. 🙂

Thanks for taking the time to review my feedback! 

[HunterDigi]

I agree. Also adding:

- For crewship an isometric view of the crewship would be more identifiable probably, if not a side view might work better or that top view rotated towards left or right

And if they're controlling said ship, a pirate flag? 😃

- If it doesn't already, in tactical menu or some other kind of menu where you have mouse to hover those icons to see exactly what they mean in case there's any confusion ingame.

 

[DeckChairVonBananaCamel]

16 hours ago, (PS4)Unstar said:

• Pilot — I've never seen a shape like this before.  Suggestions:
  • silhouette of a Tenno body between the actual Railjack "control sticks"
  • the steering wheel of a real-world car
• Gunner — This one is good!  It's the shape of the gun turrets, very recognizable.
• Forward Artillery — Another unfamiliar shape.  Suggestions:
  • The Forward Artillery laser prepares the fire with very distinct visual of a set of lasers from specific angles connecting to fire in the center.  A silhouette emulating this "laser shape".
  • A silhouette of a laser cartoonishly ripping a Grineer Crewship in half (admittedly this one might be hard to create).
• Omni-tool — This one is good!  It looks like an Omni and it can't be mistaken for any of the other icons (unlike, for example, Pilot and Forge).
• Archwing — This is the best one.  Not only does it look like an Archwing, but the symbol is nearly identical to the Archwing symbol that I've been seeing in my Foundry for years.
• Objective — This one has a weird inverse problem.  Years of playing Warframe have made it clear that this is an objective symbol.  But what does it mean, Objective?  There are lots of objectives in a Railjack mission, from getting close to a Missile Platform to destroying radiators (both inside and outside).  When is this used and when is it not used?  Am I an Archwing, a Tenno, a Railjack...?  I don't understand the meaning.
• Forge — I'm unfamiliar with this shape.  This is admittedly a trick concept to make an icon for, though.  Suggestions:
  • The best idea I have is to put a resource on the left, then to its right an arrow pointing to the right, then to its right a bullet; in other words, a simple diagram showing resources being converted into usable goods.
• Fighting — I think this one is pretty good because it's recognizable as a gun, though when seen in-mission outside of the context of the entire list, it can be unclear whether this is meant to indicate Railjack Gunnery or Tenno small-arms.  That could be cleared up by making it a sword instead of a gun, since Railjacks don't have swords.  But also, I'm unsure whether this applies only to fighting on the Railjack itself or also to fighting out in the world, and that should probably be considered, too.
• Archwing Slingshot — With the words "Archwing Slingshot" next to this icon I see what you're trying to do, but without them it's unclear.  Suggestion:
  • An actual slingshot.
• Boarding — This looks like a jetpack to me, and it also looks like the part of the ship that I interact with to use the Forward Artillery.  EDIT: while reviewing this post I realized that this is a Crew Ship viewed from above.  I can't speak for others, but I don't usually view Crew Ships from above; generally it's the side.  So my suggestion would be a side-view of a Crew Ship.
• Unspecified — Does this just mean walking around?  If so this works for that. 🙂

 

•  Pilot — i like to think of the pilot symbol as something more akin to a "commander" icon, but ill admit its not exactly indicative of "piloting". I don't mind the idea of the steering wheel, but it seems awfully mundane for something as cool as a spaceship. 
• Forward Artillery — this symbol is supposed to look like the dome charge you can build in the forge
• Forge — its actually a picture of a spanner! ... but for some reason they over-designed the icon by giving the spanner what i could only describe as "wings"... I mean, just a spanner would have sufficed, lol