Make Your App Icons Boring(lookatpete.com) |
Make Your App Icons Boring(lookatpete.com) |
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As much as the author would like Cinematic to be a utility its not. Sparrow is used every day it deserves to have a spot on the app launcher.
This seems like a product owner trying to project his own ideal concept of his app "Like Sparrow, I hope that Cinematic will become a utility for my users,"
No its not, you're answering the wrong question if you're asking "What do I want my Icon to convey", instead of "What does my Icon Do? How can I make that better?" Because the answer should be "Make it easy for my users to find and launch my app". Solve that problem by making a distinct icon that can be easily found when needed. Fandango's icon is perfect its the only one I have with a white field. When I want to find movie times, I can always find it easily even though it lives in a folder.
I went with ones in the similar color palette with a white icon
Exactly. Designing an icon in the vocabulary of the core communications apps on the iPhone is inviting yourself to a party the user may or may not want you at. Sparrow has obviously earned this; I doubt Cinematic has.
I understand the sentiment and I appreciate that we're trying to make things more streamlined, but the impactful distinctions between icons across each screen increases my use of the service because I'm not glancing over it trying to find it. I like being able to visually separate what was on my phone when I bought it and what I've downloaded.
While a lot of icons are outright terrible in either interpretation or general aesthetics, I'd rather they be unique than lost in a sea of all of the others that look just like it.
Stick with the old icon. It's much better for an app that is never going to be on someone's iPhone dock and needs to stand out from the 100 other apps people have installed on their phone.
The author argues that a movie app icon can be designed in two ways:
1. To stand out against other movie apps in the app store
2. To stand out against Mail and Safari on a device home screen.
The fact is, developers are incentivized to do #1 and incentivized against #2. It would be nice to live in a world where that was reversed, but as long as developers are competing for eyeballs in an app store against other apps in a search query that will simply not be the world in which we live.
I've run A/B testing on dozens of app icons. #1 becomes optimal as your app becomes more niche, #2 becomes more optimal as the niche becomes increasingly competitive. Compare and contrast the icons for "cinema" as for "sign language" to watch this battle play out. Cinema you get brand names, abstract art. Sign language you get a hand sign, or little kids (in the case of baby sign).
Sparrow's growth comes from happy customers (and some traditional advertising), not an icon that looks like an ad.
I'm curious how you A/B test app icons...Do you switch from one version to the next and compare downloads?
Also, can you clarify what you mean by "developers are...incentivized against #2"?
[0] http://i22.servimg.com/u/f22/11/02/45/28/9610-210.jpg [1] http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4132/4950947259_b9c8208ddf_z.j...
Copy the thematic elements that work for you, and create new ones that make you stand out.
As you asked for feedback on your icon redesign, I think it could be easily be mistaken for a rotary dial phone, on first glance. Perhaps something that looks more like a film projector would avoid any ambiguity...
;)
I do agree that app icons should be respectful of the user, but some users demand flashy!