Four tips to design the perfect icon for your mobile app
How many times do you check out an app you’ve never heard because of a cool app icon?
Until your app gains stardom and becomes the belle of the ball, you can’t rely on brand name to get downloads. Your app store listing needs to stand out and pack a punch.
The easiest way of doing this is creating a captivating app icon. A good logo doesn’t need to be a work of art. It must however represent the app and the associated brand well.
The approach to creating an app icon keeps changing. Color trends and design patterns have a major role on app icon design. After all, every app wants to give the impression of staying with the times at the very least.
Different companies look at app icons through their own lens. Some are not very interested in investing time in icon design. Others spend too much time greying their hair to come with the perfect design.
The ideal approach is somewhere in the middle. An app icon doesn’t have to be an artistic masterclass. It must simply be powerful enough to stand apart amongst other app icons on the app stores.
The focus has turned to getting app design right since app development has been simplified now. You can create a premium Android app with a reliable free Android app maker, but getting app icon design is still a challenge.
Good and bad app design can be a subjective matter at times. However, there are some tips designers can follow while creating an app icon. This piece provides four simple tips to create the ideal app icon.
#1 - The KISS principle
The ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’ (KISS) principle is generally used in marketing departments as a reminder to keep creatives and CTAs simple. This principle also fits in very well with the general ethos of app icon design.
A good app icon design is simple to understand. It is not a cluttered mix of colors, shapes, and text. One of the main problems rookie designers get with app store design is chasing perfection.
An icon doesn’t have to be perfect. It only needs to stand out.
The KISS principle grounds designers down to the need for simplicity in an app icon. Take up any popular app that has made it big and study its app design. You’d notice how each design is actually very simple to create. Brands understand the value of simplicity in the modern day.
Study the service or product your app provides and create an icon which matches the same. YouTube for example has a red TV screen with a white play button for its app icon. This clearly highlights its chief function as a video content aggregator.
Spotify on the other hand has increasing bars of volume as its icon with a cool mix of black and green. The volume icon fits in perfectly with its pitch as an audio streaming app.
#2 - Color analysis
The impact of colors in mobile app design is often understated. Choosing the right combination of colors and shades comes instinctively to designers. There is not really an objective way to teach someone which color combinations work.
However, designers can study the colors most frequently used on an app store to get a better idea. The color wheel here shows the distribution of the top free Play Store apps according to their icon color.
Source: Appbot
The distribution here shows the top free Android apps distributed according to their icon color. It seems clear that red and blue seem to be the dominant colors used for app icons.
This kind of analysis can guide designers on the type of color scheme they must choose. They can either choose to conform with the others and go for a red or blue-based color scheme. They can try to be a little different by going with green or become a complete rebel and choose yellow or pink.
The choice made here is also shaped by the tone of the associated brand. Some brands like to conform to the status quo while others choose to appear like outsiders at the very least. Designers can thus make sure that the colors they choose actually represent the brand.
#3 - No text
An app icon is not exactly a canvas meant to represent a brand. It is a symbol and symbols are small.
Adding text to an icon only clutters its overall design and confuses an average prospect. Generally, designers add text either related to a brand tagline or CTA. Both these options are less than ideal.
App stores offer marketers a number of places to display text and CTAs. The banner is the obvious place where designers can insert taglines and logos. The app title is also a good place to add an attractive tagline.
An app icon is generally too small to stuff text into. Prospects furthermore gravitate towards app icons because of their visual appeal, not text. This is because any app icon CTA would be too small to get noticed in the first place.
#4 - Don’t use a picture
Designers often use a real picture in the app icon. This is basically meant to make the app more authentic. This practice however doesn’t pan out well on the app store.
People use a variety of devices and each comes with a different screen size and resolution. Using a real image as an app icon means the quality of the icon will differ across various devices. This can have major repercussions as those who see a poor quality app icon will naturally develop an unfavorable perception of the app.
If there is a high quality picture designers wish to use, it is best to convert it into an illustration. This can make the app icon responsive and consistent across various mobile devices.
How to create a powerful app icon with AppMySite?
AppMySite offers users a number of relevant features to design their own app icon. Users are even free to upload their own icon design.
However, not every user is a design savant who can create the perfect app icon. This is where AppMySite comes in and offers design add-ons such as the Mobile App Design and App Store Design add-ons.
While the Mobile App Design add-on enhances the inner design of your app, the App Store Design add-on improves the visual appeal of your app store listing. The artwork delivered with both these add-ons comes from the best designers in the business.
AppMySite doesn’t just help you go from WordPress to mobile app for Android and iOS. It also provides a range of add-ons and other features to improve your app building experience.
In conclusion
This piece covers four important tips to create a great app icon. These tips are not comprehensive by any means. Readers can find a ton of literature on this topic. Nonetheless, the points covered here will give readers some unique insights into app icon design.
The penultimate section also discusses the role of AppMySite add-ons in helping users get a good icon. The presence of powerful add-ons shows AppMySite is the ideal platform to create a premium WordPress and WooCommerce app for Android and iOS
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