Hello, it appears our icons have not gone down to well for iChoose, MyChristmas, uSnap and Christmas Bells. Hands held up - sorry. I wondered if anyone has any constructive inspiration - the idea we want are icons that represent the product but each has a similar/recognisable item so they are branded Talee Talee....and most importantly look good on the iPhone/iPod.... Thanks for any pointers. Chris p.s. - How important are the icons to you guys (honestly)?
Hmmm. iChoose: a finger choosing... whatever it is you're choosing. MyChristmas: A doodle yet sharp looking neon christmas tree. uSnap: camera lense. christmas bells: detailed yellow bells with a velvet curtain in the background. To make them recognizable, try to have a definite art style. Something only you guys can do (not really helpful, I know, but oh well). If the app's great, the icons don't really matter, but hey, a cool looking home screen never hurts
Honestly I think the icons are a huge part of the overall look and feel of the app. And personally, if an app icon is really unattractive, it makes me think about deleting it. Which is unfortunate, but true. And icons that are attractive make me want to use them more often and think different about the company and the thought put into the effort in making the app. My $.02. I could help you design an icon if you want. PM me if you're interested.
The icons on applications are one of the main reasons that I stop to look at them. If you don't have very attractive icons, I don't think you will have a good chance at having many downloads. I would start off with a lot more color. The iChoose icon is all grey and the Christmas Bells icon has the white background. If you fill it in with a dark background, I think it will stand out more.
First impressions count The appearance of an icon is important for making that first impression. I know that it doesn't matter for some people (I will look at the desription, reviews, previews, etc for nearly every app that is of a genre I am interested in). BUT in the App Store jungle first impressions count. The icon is what someone sees when they search or view all the new apps, etc. Simple icons tend to look better than cluttered ones. It needs to be interesting or appealing enough that people will want to actually select the app and goto the description page. But once I've purchased an app, and I like using it, an unattractive icon will not be a reason for me to delete it or remove it from my iPhone. I did a search in the iTunes Store and can see you currently have 4 apps. I've done a screen dump and then cut and pasted the icons and saved them. I've attached them to this post (to save those not familiar with them from doing an itunes search EDIT: redundant as I just noticed you have included links to your apps in your signature!) and listed my first impressions of each of them. 1) My Christmas A nice looking Santa. Perhaps this is an app aimed at young children. A light coloured icon that has the detail washed out of it by the gloss effect at the top of the icon. Your company name does not stand out and is hard to read. 2) Christmas Bells A nice looking Santa. Not sure what the red "dots" are as I can't see them clearly. Even the word Free is faded and washed out by the icons effect. Perhaps this is an app aimed at young children. A light coloured icon that has the detail washed out of it by the gloss effect at the top of the icon. Your company name does not stand out and is hard to read. 3) uSnap A light coloured icon that has the detail washed out of it by the gloss effect at the top of the icon. Your company name does not stand out and is hard to read. 4) iChoose A light coloured icon that has the detail washed out of it by the gloss effect at the top of the icon. Your company name does not stand out and is hard to read. So, I think that the icons could all be improved by being brighter so that when the gloss effect (which I think Apple make optional) is applied to the icon the images are not washed or faded out so much. I also think that you should consider applying more definition to your company name so that is clearer and easier to read. For example, darken the outline of the letters. When I looked these apps up in the iTunes store I really liked the metalic effect of the dice for iChoose. You may want to consider a similar effect for your app icons. I cut and pasted one as an example of what they look like. Maybe for the uSnap icon you only need one larger deal of cards with a hand over them. Hope that helps you.
Icon designs usually make or break an app for me - If the icon looks cheap or unattractive, I won't buy the app... If I really want to try an app out, I might buy it but I won't leave it on my phone if the icon doesn't look nice. I know that sounds kind of lame, but its true
