Top 10 Tips for An Eye Catching App Icon

 Working on creating the perfect app icon design? Want to make sure you create the best icon for your mobile app?

An often overlooked part of building an app is creating an amazing app icon that perfectly fits your app.

A great app icon can round out your entire design, make your app seem more professional, and can even lead to an increase in downloads.

If you’re ready to create a great looking app icon, look no further.

Below we’ll tell you the top 10 things to remember when you’re designing your app icon.

1. Make It Scalable

One of the most important things to remember when creating an app icon is that it needs to be scalable and look great when used in various sizes.

Remember that your app may be downloaded and used on various types of mobile devices. It needs to work well with a device that is smaller or larger.

When designing the icon, it’s recommended by Android to use an 864×864 pixel artboard so that you can focus on the details and make sure it’s perfect for any size.

A well-designed app icon will have the simplicity, recognizability, and stylishness to look great no matter what size it is.

Test your app icon at multiple sizes to make sure your design is still recognizable no matter what size it is on a device.

2. Stay Consistent With the Design of the App

The next thing you need to do when creating an app icon is to stay consistent.

Work hard to make sure that your app icon is designed well and has a consistent design that goes along with the user interface design of the app itself.

Consider using the same colors and aesthetic that is used within the app.

The colors and interface should look similar to what a user will see when they open up the app themselves.

Additionally, if you create multiple versions of the icon for different platforms such as Android and iPhone, make sure they look similar and like they belong to the same app.

3. Match Other Marketing Materials

Another crucial thing you need to remember is that you need to make sure you’re creating an app icon that meshes well with your brand or app’s overall image and any previous marketing materials that have been created.

Be sure to take every part of the app into consideration when making your icon such as the brand itself as well as what the purpose of the app actually is.

If there are other marketing materials for the app that have already been created, take a look at them.

Then, make sure your icon aligns well with other branding materials or logos that are being used.

4. Leave the Words Out

When you’re making an app icon, remember that in most cases you shouldn’t incorporate any words into it.

The whole point of creating an icon is that you can create a visually appealing design that looks great and can be universally recognized.

Using words in your icon is too easy and defeats the purpose for an app icon.

Instead, try to be more creative with the visual design and make sure that’s it unique and appealing enough to stand on its own.

5. Tweak It For Each Platform

When trying to create an eye-catching icon design, it’s also a great idea to tweak your design for each platform that your app will be used on.

For each icon, you need to make sure you know the visual design and overall aesthetic of the platform you’re making it for.

An app icon for iOS should have different nuances that the icon you’re making to be used on Android devices.

If the app icon doesn’t match the environment well it can seem strange and may feel out of place to users of the app.

6. Make It Easy to Remember

While your icon should blend in well with the platform used, don’t be afraid to make it stand out just enough.

An app icon should also be memorable.

When someone is ready to use the app on their device they should easily remember what icon they need to look for to launch it

Consider testing the memorability of your icon with your family and friends.

Show them your icon and then see how much they can remember after one glance.

7. Aim For Simplicity

When making your app icon, don’t overdo it.

It’s easy to start trying to make it too complicated or adding too many ideas into your icon.

You should aim to keep it fairly simple while still making sure it’s visually appealing.

If you try to do too many things at once you run the risk of making the app icon look a little too messy and cluttered.

A good icon doesn’t need a lot of things going on to make it work.

Think of the best icons you know.

Chances are that they’re simple and not trying to achieve too much at once.

8. Test It Well

It’s also a great idea to test your app icon against different backgrounds and make sure that works well with a variety of colors as a backdrop.

Users will have all kinds of different backgrounds on their phone or device, so you want to make sure your icon has a good chance of looking visually pleasing no matter what.

By doing plenty of testing you’ll have the best chance at making sure your icon will look great for most users.

9. Consider Adding Borders

Another thing you should consider doing to make sure your app icon looks great is to add borders.

If your app icon doesn’t look quite right after testing it out on a device you may want to add borders around it.

Borders are a great visual tool to use that can help make sure your icon looks great against various backgrounds.

This way no matter what background your app’s users have on their device your icon will show up well.

After adding borders, you’ll likely still have an icon that looks great and doesn’t blend in too much into the background or clash with it in a bad way.

10. Keep It Unique

Before designing your icon it’s a great idea to take a look at other icons that are out there for apps that have a similar function as yours.

Make sure you aren’t planning an icon that is just like all of the other apps on the market.

If you take a look at multiple apps in the app store you can see that a lot of them didn’t put much thought into the icon design and many look exactly the same with just a few color changes.

Don’t be afraid to go against the grain a little bit when creating your design.

Your entire app will stand out against competitors as a result.

Perfecting Your App Icon Design

Creating an amazing app icon design is essential if you want to build an app that gets plenty of downloads and rises above competing apps.

Make sure to keep the tips above in mind to make sure you’re creating a great icon for your app that truly does it justice.

Ready to get started with your amazing mobile app idea?

Click here to submit your app idea and learn more about how BrainyApps can help you succeed!