How To Create A Brilliant App Icon
How does anyone get acquainted with an app, for example, surfing through an application store?
There are two things that catch the eye at first: the name and the icon. These two constituents often may define whether the app will make users feel they want it – or at least make them feel that it’s worth checking. Only then come the description, user interface, and everything else.
The capabilities and the experience of your application will be assessed later – not that much in terms of time, but in terms of users’ impressions. It might take just an icon for the user to picture the whole experience, intuitivity, security and functionality in the mind.
When an app represents a brand, a company, it’s generally far easier to create a great icon, since there is a ready logo, and the whole icon design will basically revolve around it. If the app is a unique entity in itself, its icon must depict it in the most precise way possible.
Along with the very idea of making an attractive app icon, there are many mistakes and bad decisions that cause bad icons emerging in the store. Some may even cause rejections by Apple. As for app names, there is a cliche of making the 199th photo-and-video-related app that starts with ”Insta-” or ends with ”-gram”.
On the other hand there’s a pic cliche of using a camera lens image as an element of the icon. Such little but obvious things reduce the app’s chance of being noticed. The icon must look beautiful and recognizable. It can be made this way if you stick to the following rules.
Keep the icon simple
That’s one of the main rules for a limited amount of space. The best is when there’s just one object on the icon. This object becomes the essence of the app, with the gradients and reflections that surround it. If there has to be more than one object, it’s obligatory that each one is clearly depicted to avoid making a mess of an icon, especially in smaller sizes.
Create an organic color palette
By and large it’s easier to do when you don’t put too many colors into the logo. It often happens that the fewer colors there are, the better for the icon. Not more than two is often enough, if we don’t take hues of the same color into account. One more thing – you score additional points if the icon’s palette is consistent with the colors of user interface.
Don’t use a photo
Photos rank among the worst candidates for an app icon, especially when it comes to different sizes of the icon required by application stores. Details of a photo don’t scale that well to smaller sizes. In case of need there is an option of creating a skeuomorphic icon that will look close to a photo and properly portray a real-world item. Therefore the icon will look great in every needed resolution: the biggest one on the application store, the main one on the homescreen of a mobile device, and the smallest ones in the notification center or in a folder.
Avoid typography when possible
The very idea of sending the message of an icon in text isn’t that good – there’s a name for that. It’s better to think visual. Say, there’s a branded application, and the brand’s logo includes its name in some distinct typeface. It is mostly possible to avoid putting the name on the icon, focusing on the symbol instead. Surely there are exceptions, but generally this tip is quite advisable.
>Don’t be a copycat
If you design an icon for an iOS app, you mustn’t use the UI elements of the operating system. It’s no good if the default icons are confused by people, and two apps look the same on the homescreen. And if we take a general look, it’s better to avoid copyrighted images and all the related problems, since there’s always a way to create something unique.
>Check how the icon looks on different wallpapers
Everyone has different wallpapers on their homescreens, you won’t know what is used. Thus it’s better to make sure that the icon looks good on wallpapers of different colors and textures, and essentially on the variety of default wallpapers.
Unleash your imagination
A perfect icon requires inspiration. Simple doesn’t mean primitive. You often have to create something complex, then simplify to make it look perfect. Don’t be standard. Don’t hesitate to experiment and create drastically different variants of icons for the app. There are hundreds of thousands of apps in the store, and it’s hard to be unique. But nobody said that it’s hopeless to try. On the contrary, there are many applications with icons that are crafted far less skillfully. Maybe you won’t necessarily need each and every rule of those mentioned above, but at least most of them. Build your own catchy image and good luck in your efforts!
Source : Mobidev
