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Some may be familiar with app icons but for those who are not, an app icon is the icon graphically representing an app in your smartphone (for launching it, managing it or previewing it in the store). The artwork has to be a certain size, most of the time it is rendered at a dimension of 1024×1024 to be exact. It is fair to say that a design can determine the success of your product. When you have a design that is not good it will more than likely effect the success of your product. It is super important that you think about some of the design aspects before you launch your app – you want to make sure that your design is perfect and will stand out from the rest of the competition. There are some important aspects we want you to remember when thinking about designing your app icon. Lets focus on characteristics found in the design of an app icon and what you can do to make your app icon stand out from the rest.
Branding
Your brand is the single most important part of your company. Your brand identifies who you are, what your company believes in, the services or products that your company may offer and much more. Often times your logo (the symbol of your company) is used to represent the company in various situations like a letterhead or your social media “default picture”. It is important to remember that your app icon is not your logo. The app icon is the visual representation of your product (what is inside the app) that appears in a tiny space on your screen. We are not saying that the design of the actual app should avoid any of the company’s branding guidelines – you should follow its colors, graphic styles, text styles and even tone in order to best align to the bigger “brand” picture. The best advice we can give is… do not use your company logo for your app icon and make sure the app icon design is consistent with the look and feel of your application.
Be Concise
We have all heard the saying less is more, and this saying can very much so be applied to design as well. As we all know the size of the canvas is restricted and the renderings of the app icon can be as small as the settings panel. It is important to keep the core design elements relevant to the app, leave out excessive detail and do not try to apply two or more different concepts in the same space – your design will look over complicated, too busy and it will be confusing for the user. Think about your favorite app, I am willing to bet that it has good functionality and an appealing design. The app icon is the first impression that the user will have, they will see the app icon before they even open the app. It is important that your design is concise and can tell the user what the app will offer by their design illustration.
Identity
There is nothing more disappointing than searching for a specific category in the app store to only find a million app icons that look the exact same, you feel like you are looking at the same app over and over again. Any app icon that can stand out in the app store as well as among installed applications will get the attention of the user. If you can catch the eye of the user, you have a better chance of the user downloading your app which then leads to the user engagement. Even though established patterns of navigation and screen flows ease the user experience, having a recognizable and unique appearance is what distinguishes apps from one another. Users would have no trouble identifying the apps they love most if they are presented with just a screenshot of the app icon because the user has a connection with that app and can instantly recognize the app icon as a result. The combination of color, layout, elements on the screen, and function is the main separation of the app identity. Bottom line, there are many elements that go into designing a great app icon for your company. When you are competing in the app store it is especially important to have your app icon stand out from your competitors. We take design very seriously and we understand the importance of your app needing the best in class design in order to succeed. Do you have questions about how your app is performing based on your current design? Get in touch so that we can give you a free design consultation.
