This is the first use of it I'm aware of in terms of software. In terms of software, Windows 95 introduced a 'gear' as part of its Settings Start Menu option. In fact many watches are now designed so that the user can see the actual inner workings.
If you want to change how 'something' operates you need to alter the inner-workings of the system, which was often the gears.Īnother metaphor for its use is that of a traditional watch. Therefore, using a gear for settings is a metaphor that has made its way into our visual language lexicon. Many machines worked this way, even ones you would not think of, such as printing presses, folding machines, etc.
So if you wanted to change a tool setting, you would have to manually make an alteration to the gear(s). It doesn't take up much space and it's getting established as the settings icon.Traditionally the operation of a mechanical tool was determined by the physical constraint of the position/type/size of the gears used. I think you need a good reason not to follow those established idioms, so I would recommend the gear icon near the top right of the page. The popularity of google and amazon sites in a sense trains people how the web works and establishes web idioms. I haven't noticed a settings access on amazon's sites, but both google and yahoo use a gear icon to access settings and the gear icon is usually in the top right corner of the page (naturally, all this is subject to change). If you're talking about a web application I'd say follow the leaders like google and yahoo and amazon. So for a native application it's best to follow the native guidelines and conventions. In iOS sometimes the settings are a menu option and sometimes the settings for an app are accessed through the system settings app. Mac and (pre 8) Windows settings were conventionally accessed through a menu. Most every OS has guidelines for settings access.
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