Convert units icon

[Wise_Owl]

The Convert units function performs two very distinct functions.  One converts from a unitless number to one with units and the other converts from a number with units back to a unitless number.  However, these two functions have the same icon:

This can lead to confusion.  Perhaps the icon could be changed as shown below to remove the uncertainty.

The upper conversion is "to units" and the lower is "from units".

[Darin.K]

Setting aside my dislike for units and imagining a world where they are value added, I can not decide if I like your convention for the icons or the reverse. I am leaning toward liking the arrow to indicate the input/output with the units. Some visual indication in the terminal that units are associated with the value would be nice as well (separate idea). Just looking at the lower two examples, my initial reaction is that the output of the lower one would have units. I really get no intuition of what is going on in the top one. Not necessarily bad, just that I like it when my initial reaction matches the actual behavior. Kudos to do something with that function.

[Wise_Owl]

I agree with Darin's criticism of the changes that I chose to make to the icons, and I know that they could be designed to be more intuative (hopefully) were this to be implemented.  

However, units are excellent.  I never, make mistakes of wiring up inconsistently in calculations or reports, nor do I ever have to even think about it.  It simplifies that portion of code development no end.  Though I do have this nagging doubt, becuase few others (including NI) seem to make use of units.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

We can take Wise Owl's particular icons as suggestions and act on the general recomendation that these two look different. That I can definitely agree with. My thought would be to add some sort of + or - symbol to the icon... but that's something the UI designers and UX reviewers can hash through.

I agree that units are very useful -- within your specific application where you know the units. The reason you see NI making such small use of units is that so much of our stuff is reused in multiple apps, and we don't want to generate a subroutine for every possible unit combination. We need better tools for this (and there are already multiple ideas on the Idea Exchange and within R&D aimed at helping that situation), but if we had such tools, we would certainly use units more. Relevant commentary: http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Make-units-work-all-the-way-or-skip-them/idi-p/1803510