Coming up with an amazing and innovative idea for an app and then executing it is one thing, but actually guaranteeing your app is downloaded and used is a whole different story. A company may have the best application out there but if they do not invest the time and energy to guarantee their app store optimization (AOS) is up to par, then there really is no point of their even creating an app. The good news is that app store optimization doesn’t mean having to spend big bucks. It simply means a company should follow a few ground rules in order to make sure their app is higher in the ranks, as well as take into account that optimizing for Google Play Store is quite different from Apple Store. One of the main things companies should focus on in their quest for AOS is their app’s icon.
Since the app’s icon is the very first thing potential users see, a company should know they’ll be judged by it. Users expect intuitive, beautiful and sometimes even magical experiences when using apps. Companies should focus on simple designs, avoid using words in their icon, choose one key element and get creative. As stated in Hongkiat, “There isn’t much space to play around so this tiny picture has to do all the work, giving an intuitive representation of what users are going to get with the app.” The importance of an app icon is so crucial that, according to Creative Bloq, “if it doesn’t look great then there’s a risk that your app will be relegated from the homepage, and sent back to pages where it may never see the light of day.”
Here are the top 5 app icons that did it right in 2016
This May, users were pretty shocked and upset when Instagram decided to switch its app icon from the small camera they knew and loved to something similar but quite different. The brand’s head of design, Ian Spalter, excused the decision by writing on Medium that, “the Instagram logo and design was beginning to feel, well… not reflective of the community, and frankly we thought we could make it better.” Additionally, the company also updated the navigational icons — the home, search, camera, activity and profile buttons and gave the app a black-and-white look. The app kept the old logo’s rainbow and camera lens, but users were still not feeling it. However, no publicity is bad publicity and the app is just as successful as it was before the change.
Uber
Another major app that went through quite the transformation this year was Uber. The change had been two years in the making and had to do with the desire to create a design that will suit the future of the company. “Uber began life as a black car service for 100 friends in San Francisco—everyone’s private driver,” wrote Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in a company press release. “Today, we’re a transportation network spanning 400 cities in 68 countries that delivers food and packages, as well as people, all at the push of a button.” The app’s icon was designed to connect the different aspects of Uber as a service that transports more than just people. As Kalanick explained, “you’ll see that both rider and driver icons have the bit at the center, and then the local colors and patterns in the background. This is a framework that will also make it easy to develop different icons for new products over time.”
As with Instagram’s new reveal, users and critics weren’t happy with the change and likened it to the Death Star, wondering where the letter “U” was in the logo. The complaints just came to prove that no one is a big fan of change, however they ultimately did not actually affect the company.
Google Allo and Google Duo
In the short time since they were first released and downloaded by millions, the two new apps from Google- Allo and Duo– have already changed their icons. Allo, which was announced by Google at the I/O 2016 developer conference, is a mobile-only messaging app that allows you to express yourself with stickers, doodles, huge emojis and text. Allo, unlike Hangouts, allows users to delete messages from their chat history. Duo is a one-to-one video calling app that works with iOS and Android. .
The two icons were re-designed in order to make their design pattern similar to that of other available applications by Google. Instead of using words pasted over a chat bubble shape (for All) and video camera shape (for Duo), the two shapes now appear as the centerpieces of the icons, with a colorful backdrop.
Pokémon Go
Since the game’s launch in July this year, the Pokémon Go app has been downloaded 500 million times and has been played on nearly every street corner around the world. The game uses your phone’s GPS data and clock to show Pokémon hidden near a user’s current, physical location. They can then capture the Pokémon that has appeared on their screen, and as they go to different cities and towns, the types of Pokémon they encounter will change. The app was so successful it even became more popular than Tinder in the US.
Netflix
The streaming giant parted ways with its icon in June, and opted for a new black background and the letter “N” on top of it in a ribbon pattern that reminds users of a red carpet. The company however did not change its logo but updated its look for the second time since 2014 when the brand first changed its icon.
During 2016, mobile use has become front and center more than ever before. Designers are now looking to perfect their mobile-designing skills and create the best app icon that will convey what the client does and how it visualizes the brand’s future. Among this year’s top trends was the use of animation and the second generation of the flat app icon, as well as an overall attempt by companies to improve their UX and get more downloads and users to their app. The five apps we’ve mentioned above have gotten a lot of headlines this year, mainly because whether users or critics liked them or not, they just can’t be ignored.
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