Creating Compelling Icons To Enhance Mobile Apps Interaction

App Development

07
Dec 2018

1869 Views 5 Minute Read

creating icons to enhance apps interaction

It is important to know what function the icons perform. This is a visual symbol of your product. A tiny detail of branding that should not only look attractive and stand out from the crowd. Ideally, it displays the essence of your mobile app. Many use the word "logo" but icons are not logos. They have common points.

Logos - scalable vector branding elements intended for billboards, shop windows and other prominent places.

Icons - most often raster images in a square frame of a certain size. During designing, it will not be superfluous to compose a set of PNG files of various sizes: from 29 × 29 to 1024 × 1024 pixels. With such a set, you can use it in different contexts of the operating system, when users interact with the icon (iOS App Store, Google Play, settings panel, search results and the main screen of the device). App icons can be made in almost any program that plays raster files - Photoshop, Illustrator or Sketch.

5 key aspects

Consider a few basic techniques that are used in the development of a mobile app.

1) Scalability

This is one of the main features of the app. Icons of different sizes are displayed in different sections of the platform. Therefore, it is important that your icons are legible and unique. It is necessary that they look good both in the App Store, and on devices with a Retina screen, and even in the settings.

Complicated design, when too many details are squeezed into a small square of an icon, is often poorly displayed in a modified scale. At the initial stage, when the concept of the future icon is created, you need to devote enough time to the question of how a particular icon will look if you change the size.

How to improve scalability

Design at 1024 × 1024 pixels may look deceptive. Check the icon on the device in different situations. The icon should look good regardless of the background.

2) Recognizability

A good mobile app icon is like a catchy song: you can always distinguish it in the surrounding noise. The main screen is a key component of a good icon design. The shape, color and general idea of the icon should resonate with the user's feelings, his inner sense of harmony. The design should activate memory at the functional and emotional levels.

Your icon will compete for the user's attention with thousands of its competitors. Each of them is the same 1024 pixels, designed to establish an emotional and other connection with the owner of the device. Mobile app development companies recognize the impacts of icons in the way apps are perceived.

How to make the icon more noticeable

Banal, too complicated icons harm recognition. It is better to remove all unnecessary details, as long as the general idea is preserved. Has the icon become more noticeable?

Experiment with multiple design options. Place them in a grid and note which details are more noticeable.

Try to study the icons of your favorite apps to understand why you like them. What makes them stand out from the competition? What techniques did they use to create them?

3) Integrity of interaction

A good icon is a continuation of the interface. If this condition is met - the app will be remembered.

You increase the retention rate and virality by shaping the uniformity of the software in the eyes of users. Simply put, if the icon is in harmony with the functionality and design - this is a big plus.

How to achieve uniformity

One of the obvious ways is to stick with the general color scheme and design language. So, if the interface is mostly green, the icon should also be green.

Another way is to associate the symbolism of the icon directly with the functionality of the application - although this is not always possible.

4) Uniqueness

Here everything seems to be clear without further ado. Do you adhere to the chosen style, follow a certain trend? The main thing is that it should be your design and not a copy. Your icon will always compete with others for the attention of users, but the ability to stand out against the general background is an argument in its favor.

Uniqueness is not an easy thing, because it depends not only on the designer’s skills but also on what competitors do.

How to increase uniqueness

See what others are doing and stick to the other direction. Always do research - the world does not need another icon in the form of a check mark.

Experiment with colors. Color is a good way to make changes to the concept.

5) It is important not to use words

Only in isolated cases, it makes sense to resort to an additional tool of abstraction - the written word. As a rule, words are a sign that the illustrative arsenal is not used to the fullest extent.

Words and images are separate tools. If you combine them, the graphic representation will get chaotic, it will be difficult to decipher. If there are words, most likely, the designer failed to convey his vision.

Company logo and name crammed into icons cannot be called a suitable design option. Have you ever seen a character or glyph that looks good in tight spaces? If not, then it is better to choose something else. Remember: icon and logo are different things. And they are relevant in different contexts.

There are many examples of ill-conceived icon design on the App Store and Google Play. The icon is an intermediary between the app and its user. This is the first thing that a person sees in the App Store, and which he interacts with every time he opens the app. When a user thinks about an app, an image of an icon pops up in his mind.

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