5 Hacks for a beautiful Mobile App Icon

Tips and tricks to get the best mobile app icon

n the US, an average person has more than a hundred apps on their mobile phones. And this figure is enormously increasing each year.

Therefore, if you are a mobile app designer and want to stand out from the crowd, your app needs to have a professional icon. A professional mobile app icon will enhance your user engagement with your brand, and people will notice you!

However, creating a mobile app icon is not a very simple process, but it’s a daunting one isn’t fair. You need to know the basics, keep them right, study the technical specifications of a mobile app icon, and whatnot. Once a daunting looking job feels like an everyday task, you have the knowledge and the right guidance.

Therefore, in this reading, we will unravel all the clandestine hacks of how you can create a beautiful mobile app icon and get the success you deserve. Keep reading.

A mobile app icon? What’s that?

A mobile app icon is a little image standing on behalf of your app on your user’s device. Its like a logo! Nevertheless, a mobile app icon is one of the fundamental elements of your brand identity. A mobile app icon helps you stand out from the competition. And unravel the whiff of your ultimate selling proposal.

According to statistics, user search about 70% of a mobile app on Google Play and App Store. For the remaining 30%, people tend to learn about them via reviews, advertising campaigns, newsletters, and social media. Hence, your job should be creating an engaging icon that has the potential to attract and encourage a user to learn about your products.

Things to keep in mind when making a mobile app icon

Another stat says that around 21% of millennials choose to uninstall the mobile app if they don’t like the mobile app icon on their screen. Hence, it is vital that your mobile app icon not only should be functional but also aesthetical.

Simplicity is the key that you should hunt for

Now, if you would ask us only the rule that tends to matter the most, undoubtedly, it will be to “keep it clean and simple.”

This means saying no to all the intricate designs. Understand that the more details your mobile app icon contains, the harder it is for the users to perceive the meaning and make a connection. Also, an overloaded icon is difficult to be scaled. Hence your mobile app icon should be designed to be easily recognizable in different sizes and on another medium.

Using symbolic images is one of the best things that you can do. For example, you can easily recognize snapchat through the white ghost on the mobile app icon. In the case of Twitter, you can quickly figure it out via the white flying bird. However, these are also the brand logo of these companies. Therefore, if you are using it, make sure that you come out clean and minimalistic.

Color can potentially play with the psychology

Many people determine whether to use your mobile app or not based on your mobile app icon’s color. You have to not think of masses as a single entity, but rather small bunches of balls having different beliefs and rationalizing powers. We are jotted down some of the critical tips that will help you compose a balanced color scheme.

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No more than 2-3 shades! Otherwise, you are at risk of turning your mobile app icon design into a blurred mess of a rainbow. To understand this, take the help of icons of Airbnb and Dropbox.

Trusting choices of the major brand! A noted study says that the best color for designing a mobile app icon is blue. And, not to deny that most big bulls like Google, Safari, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn prefer the sky color. Blue is then followed by red, and then white. Most of the food companies prefer red!

No matter what hue you select, make sure that it matches your business and your brand identity. Also, note that your mobile app icon looks fabulous across various background colors like black, white, or multi-colored.

Bring Coherency into the picture

Your mobile app icon should be reflecting what your app is all about. Surfing through various designs and content is of utmost importance to create an impactful visual image that builds an emotional bond with your audience. A secret is that customers love it when brands spill thoughts into their design.

To make your mobile app icon robust, it’s okay to use your corporate colors, shapes, and texture. Try working with gradients and some unusual geometry. If you possess more than one app, its better than all your mobile app icon has the same visual style. Your designs and functionality should be well intertwined so that your audience instantly understand what your app does.

Understanding the battle between image and text

You cannot and should not go for long words and photos when designing a small mobile app icon. This can positively make the elements be perceived harder to your audiences. Users favorably perceive images 60,000 times faster than texts. Would you still prefer using texts? The takeaway here is crystal clear, for a strong impact, make sure that you choose visual symbols rather than words.

If you are struggling to find a good symbol for your art, you can make a list of associations with your product. This will make it leisurely for you to convert words into images rather than finding the suitable symbol without warming up.

You can also go for using text if your brand name is minimal, like Uber or BBC. But you can also choose to use the first alphabet of your business, and that’s another brilliant idea.

Three best ways of creating a custom mobile app icon

Now, this is variable stuff and solely depends on you. It depends on your needs, the amount of time, effort, and money you are potentially willing to invest. However, we have incorporated the three best ways that most businesses tend to use.

Using a Graphic Editor

Suppose you are skilful enough to pull it over and have some experience in creating art pieces on Photoshop or Illustrator. In that case, you can opt for this and give your skills a push. This is one of the best ways to be a start-up or a new business owner with a highly tight budget.

Online Services

There are online icon makers like Logasters, Canva, or Appicon with hundreds of templates and customizable imagery that can potentially get your job done. You can create a customized mobile app icon and download it in high quality. Note that some of the websites are free, and others charge a minimal charge for the service.

Hiring a Designer

If you have some money to invest, this is the safest and the best way of getting your mobile app icon. A professional designer can come up with a tremendous professional icon for your mobile app. You can find a professional designer on any freelance website, ask a friend, or hire a mobile app icon designer at Designfier.

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Vikash is a content writer, currently active in the field of designing and brand building. He is an avid reader and a internet savvy, always keen to learn more about brands and the way they communicate with their wide audience.