Icon Design Tips | Mobile App UX
How to improve your app icon design
With the flourish of mobile apps and smartphones integrating with our lives in the modern day and the general trend of growth in the mobile space, many entrepreneurs and businesses look to polishing their mobile app experience to serve as another platform to drive revenue and engage with their desired audience.
In a crowded app marketplace with more than 2 million available apps, discovery becomes a crucial component of overall success. In addition to traditional ad marketing, a great app icon design can help attract potential customers and make their purchasing decisions.
In order to stand out from your competitors and leave a memorable and positive first impression, a great app icon design is crucial.
Here are a few tips to help you create a better app icon design:
1. Keep it simple
Threes is a mobile game app where the player slides numbered tiles on a four-by-four grid to combine addends and multiples of three. The icon conveys the main memorable component related to the concept with a bold 3 and main colors of the game.
2. Make your icon aesthetics consistent with your app
While the Monument Valley App Icon is detailed, it pulls off their details well by adhering to the aesthetic of their game. The final result if polished and visually appealing.
3. Stand out from your competition
While debated, Instagram’s new app icon design uses strong shapes alongside a rainbow accent for a brighter, more minimalist look.
Whether you agree with the change or not, it certainly stands out on your screen in a memorable way and differs from other social media app/messaging app icons which generally use a single color such as green — WhatsApp, WeChat or blue —Twitter, Facebook, Messenger.
4. Strive for something that is unique and recognizable
Evernote’s app icon is an elephant head, which overall is not that unique. However, the style of the curled trunk and page fold in the ear makes it unique and clever.
Conclusion
By making an awesome first impression, your aesthetics can communicate value and meaning to define your brand, encourage people to download your app in the first place. While many things must work together for an app to be successful, you won’t regret investing in great design.
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