Make Your App Icons Boring | Hacker News Reader

Make Your App Icons Boring

lookatpete.com

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Icons currently on my iphone which I would confuse with Sparrow

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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.

Did you seriously just point out all of the blue icons you could find? Regardless of the fact that they would seriously be confused with Sparrow's icon?

No I actually skipped a bunch, Rdio, Skype, Get Glue, Facebook, Stocks, Weather, Chase

I went with ones in the similar color palette with a white icon

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,"

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've gotta say, apps that utilize the same diagonal-line structure as native iOS apps are confusing, even more when they use the same blue that everyone else does (http://pxldot.com/post/26373071943/apples-icon-ecosystem-or-...).

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.

That's what I was thinking. I think I would prefer to have good looking icons with their own identity. Having more apps using the same diagonal-line with gradient background will make it all look bland.

This feels like cargo culting. You're copying Sparrow's icon that exists for an app people use every day. I think you're also associating the icon with the app polish itself.

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.

I think this is nice in theory, but it's naive. From a developer's point of view, an icon is an ad that causes you to click and read the description in the app store. I don't like it, but those are the facts.

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).

The premise of my post is that your first assertion ("an icon is an ad") is not a fact, but a choice. If you search for "email" in the App Store, would Sparrow jump out at you? No, but they've chosen not to pursue that "advertising" strategy. Their growth is based on fully delighting their users with the product, and an icon which, IMO, looks like it always belonged on my phone.

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"?

I agree that there is a difference between designing for utility versus designing for entertainment but respectfully, the new icon looks like bloatware.

Respectfully, I like the old one better.

Seconded. The new one looks like the pink car. The old one looks kinda boring but the colors at the edges make it easily identifiable around a dozen other icons.

OK so you've posted some of your ideas on icon design, now provide some robust evidence that your ideas are valid. Otherwise, this is merely speculation.

I disagree in one sense: Making it too boring will make the user spend time trying to find it. iOS/Android suffers from icon overload.

I think the problem with this concept is your premise is based around functionality while your reasoning is based around purchasing. Frankly I almost never think about the app icon once purchased, it’s like reading names in books. I almost never know how to pronounce characters until I have to say them aloud, then for the life of me I have no idea how they sound. Case in point: (until the movie came out) how you pronounced “Hermione” (weird example I know). Back to the point, the icon itself gets it recognized for purchase…making it more harmonious with your app experience once downloaded is an ancillary benefit at best?

If your users feel better about your app, they are more likely to tell others about your app. That's far more likely to get you found and purchased than popping slightly more than the next guy in the app store. That said, it's not clear just how big an impact a cleaner icon has, and the likelihood that your users will be talking about you in the first place probably depends on what your app does, &c. It does seem a good thing to keep in mind, though.

Regarding names in books, I find that I often learn to recognize names by the vague shape of the composing characters, and am unaware even of the exact spelling of the name.

I'm not a designer; but I feel that mistaking good taste, i.e. the expensive black luxury car on the right, with 'boring' just isn't accurate.

Exactly. While the author chose a <blink> example to make his point, a (near) stock Honda S2000 [0] can be just as classy as a Maserati GranTurismo.

[0] http://i22.servimg.com/u/f22/11/02/45/28/9610-210.jpg [1] http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4132/4950947259_b9c8208ddf_z.j...

Everything doesn't have to match exactly all the time. Thats not the definition of minimalism nor even good design.

Copy the thematic elements that work for you, and create new ones that make you stand out.

If you want to go the way you preach, you need to simplify your new icon much more. Lose some of the details - too much of it now with the film strip end and the internal part of the film roll. Losing the film strip end and internal part altoghether makes it not related to a film - more of a rotary dial - but then again in real life size at a quick glance you would not relate to film or movies with your new icon anyway. May be a film spool with not rounded but triangular angles, a dotted edges filmstrip or a camera icon.

I think your argument is based on solid GUI design principles; for example, the continuum from abstract to realistic in icon design.

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...

The old icon looks much better. Until I read the paragraph preceding it, I actually assumed the left was the new icon and the right was the old, because the right is much brighter and more annoying. The left feels more subdued and like something I wouldn't mind having on my home screen.

I like the look of the old icon better, but at a glance it's hard to tell what the app is for. I'd say keep the old icon, but replace the C with a film reel like in the new icon. Then it stands out enough to find it in a folder (because that app is probably not going in many docks).

Off-topic, but I need to complain about the YouTube app icon. It should be red and white and say YouTube on it. Instead, it's a brownish-green old-school TV. I miss it every time I go looking for it.

Great points all around and the new icon looks fantastic. Your cinematic app looks very cool also. Where are you grabbing the showtimes data from?

So what if everyone made generic icons? I think your idea only works because not everyone is doing it.

So what if everyone made generic replies to comments? I think your comment only works because not everyone is saying it.

;)

I can't tell if your wink means you are selflessly throwing yourself on the sword of self-deprecatingly irony to help me make my point, or if you actually believe what you are saying.

Guess a wink is not enough sometimes, was trying to re-enforce your point! Agree with you entirely.

I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed ;)

Clean design can be just as flashy. The new one stands out...but not in a good way. It looks cheap.

I do agree that app icons should be respectful of the user, but some users demand flashy!

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