Tips For Designing Best App Icons

Although app icons are small in size, they have a huge impact on the success of your app. Most people underestimate the importance of app icon design and focus more on its functionality. A successful icon attracts the buyers’ attention to the product so the app logo design will help you increase downloads and stand out from the crowd. Keep in mind that app icons are not logos. Logos are scalable vector pieces of design used for billboards and promotional material. App icons are customized to look good on square canvas at specific sizes and in specific contexts. Therefore, the approach, tools, and criteria for success are quite different. But how do you make a “good” app icon? We’ve selected some of the most useful tips to guide you on your way to designing outstanding app icons.

Don’t Use Word And Pictures

You will probably agree that tiny text is very hard to read, plus using words in your app logo might cause localization problems when you decide to launch your app on a new market. You can, on the other side, use the first letter of your app name, as Pinterest or Tumblr do. When it comes to pictures, we agree that there are so many amazing photorealistic app icons, but using real pictures is a taboo.

Create Icons Which Are Introducing Main Features Of the App

Good icons allow users to understand the main features of the apps without reading the descriptions which are often lengthy and include too much information. For example, Jazz Smash shows the main game feature in its app icon. In the game, you use the bat to smash different items. Music-related apps often use notes or musical instruments, while messengers use conversation bubbles, with Viber, Whatsapp, and Facebook Messenger being classic examples. Don’t forget that the icon is an integral part of an application and that the branding should stay consistent between the two.

Use Fewer Colors

Playing with colors is addictive and once you start adding them it is hard to stop. But, when it comes to app icon design it is very important to stick to only two or three colors. Wide color variety in one small icon can turn it into a mess, but you can use light and shadow imitation to increase color variation. YouTube is a good example of an icon which uses only two colors but still looks great.

Scalability

One of the most important aspects of the app icon is scalability. It is going to be shown in several different places on the platform, and you certainly don’t want it to lose its uniqueness and its legibility due to size changes. The best way to ensure that your app icon has perfect size and format is to follow the rules of two major app stores – Android and iOS. We hope these tips will help you create an app icon which will represent your application in the best light and skyrocket the number of downloads. You certainly have an awesome app idea, and we don’t want you to get lost with bad app icon design. Once your app icon is created, you can test your design in various circumstances and make sure it looks nice in any resolution, does it have the right contrast on different backgrounds, etc. If you think this is too much to handle on your own, we will be happy to create a unique design for your application icons and help you stay on top of your game. Feel free to contact us at any time, and we will show you why we are the best website design agency in West Palm Beach!