作者：George Osborn

人类是非常肤浅的物种。尽管我们都认为应该根据内涵来判断某人，然而，我们的最终决定总是受到外表的影响。

好吧，不管你想到了什么，我们这边要说的可不是约会，我要讨论的是应用图标如何影响消费者决定是否下载某游戏。

因为这些小方块—-有时带圆角，有时没有，确实会影响你的应用的下载量。此外，设计得太差的图标可能导致平台所有者拒绝发布你的产品。

在6月的全球苹果开发者大会上，差劲的图标设计被列为开发者遭App Store拒绝的三大原因之一。

所以，本着助人为乐的精神，我写了这篇短文告诉大家如何制作出完美的应用图标。漂亮的图标不仅讨平台开发者喜欢，还能取悦相当一部分的消费者。

1、研究设计趋势

还记得几个月以前从苹果设备的系统iOS6转变为iOS7的热闹场景吗？

对于开发者，苹果系统的任何版本更新通常以消除bug为中心，但这一次，iOS7又出新招了—-全新的外观。

是的，iOS7“变平了”，改变了消费者查看主界面的方式，但最重要的是，图标发生了变化。

原版系统的拟真设计不见了，换上经过苹果首席设计师Jony Ive批准的图标风格—-虚假、平面化、活泼的颜色和精细的阴影。

竞争平台Windows Phone等的开发者，过去也习惯于设计“平面化”的应用图标，而苹果改变方向意味着iOS开发者不得不做出重大转变，以适应新趋势。

以下图所示的YouTube的图标为例：与新版的相比，老版的“小电视”放在iOS7的屏幕上会显得非常搞笑。

在设计领域，改变是司空见惯的现象，虽然你总是拒绝改变的余地，但接受改变更能确保人们搜索到应用后，更愿意把它们留在屏幕上。

Apple的老版YouTube图标（左）和Google最新的YouTube图标（右）

所以，在你开始制作图标以前，先Google或Bing一下最近的设计潮流是什么，确保能把它们融入你的应用图标设计中。

2、了解市场竞争

你必须保证你的图标遵守了当下的设计惯例，保证它们适合放在用户的主屏幕上，但更重要的是，保证它们脱颖而出，战胜目标市场上的其他竞争者。

寻找平衡点绝不容易，但看看某种类型的游戏竞争多么激烈—-比如在App Store中搜索“消除类”游戏，结果如下图所示，你就知道设计一个有个性的图标是多么重要的事。

正如苹果的UX专家Mark Stern最近在演讲中所说的，“如果图标看起来不错，制作得很用心，那么就有理由相信，该应用的其他部分也设计和制作得一样好。”

因此，花点时间搜索App Store和其他应用市场，找找潜在的竞争对手，看看哪个做得突出，并借鉴对方的优点为己用。

3、图标与角色相结合

游戏最重要的元素之一就是令人难忘的角色。把角色融入图标可以增加个性，而有个性的游戏图标除了在第一时间抓住人的眼球，甚至在数年后，仍然在玩家的记忆中占据特殊位置。

无论我们说的是马里奥还是刺猬索尼克，或是让人记忆犹新的《侠盗猎车手5》中的Trevor，特别的角色都能够在玩家的脑中留下烙印，帮助玩家记忆他们所在的游戏。

它们还有助于让你的应用图标在激烈的竞争中脱颖而出。

看看以下三个例子：《Murder Files》、《Ridiculous Fishing》和《Badland》。玩家投入时间和金钱培养的角色被当作图标的前层，使玩家更容易在App Store中发现它们的存在。

根据这条建议，你的主要挑战是把主角以最合适的方法融入图标中，以上三个例子就是榜样。

在这三个例子中，角色支配了整个图像，但每一个都与图标结合得很好。

《Ridiculous Fishing》中的Billy坐在地上摆弄他那可笑的机关枪；《Murder Files》中的Hannah Dakota捕捉到英式精英的神韵；《Badland》把游戏的华丽场景与它的主角相结合，形成非常强烈的视觉效果。

通过把角色融入图标，你的游戏就有了个性化的印记，这样玩家就更容易在众多图标中一眼发现你的游戏。

4、保持简单

与其他手机相关的东西一样，图标设计也要力求简单。

甚至在“平板手机”革命之后，屏幕尺寸仍然比较小，无论是在应用商店中还是安装在主屏幕上，图标能占据的也不过是小于一平方厘米左右的空间。如果你没有注意到这一点，后果将不堪设想。

自由图像和网页设计师Axel Hunter认为，简单就是核心。

“当说到应用图标的设计时，我坚定地拥护‘少即是多’原则。”

“与看起来好看一样，简单的设计意味着设计师可以选择突出最关键元素，而不是把不重要东西铺满整个图标。”

那么，怎么保持图标简单？Hunter提出一条重要原则。

“强大而简单的设计要求只有一个图像，且它与品牌或应用的主题具有紧密的关系。”

总之，这意味着你的图标中不能有文本，以便给必须的图像元素腾出足够的空间，颜色最好选择互补色但不要太多太杂；如果你的游戏不是人物导向型的话，那么图标形状最好特殊一点。

在注意力短暂的时代，谁能最快突出要点，谁就能成功。所以，一定要记住适可而止。

5、测试，测试，再测试

做到以上四点，你设计的图标距离完美应该不太远了；但是，除非别人看到它，否则你不可能知道你的设计到底成不成功。第三方的建议大有作用。

例如，如果你的游戏是角色导向型的，你有四个主要角色，你要突出哪一个？

如果你的游戏没有角色（也许你做的是拼图游戏），那么突出游戏中元素如宝石会不会更好？或者想出一个独特的设计？

单纯地搜索应用商店可能很难找出答案，因为很难确定一款游戏是成功还是失败，特别是对于它的图标。

幸运的是，23snaps工作室的营销总监Meaghan Fitzgerald给我们提了一条非常棒的建议—-借助广告的力量。

“我有网页市场营销的背景，我习惯于对所有营销活动的元素进行A/B测试，所以转行到营销手机应用这个更加困难的领域，我觉得很怪异。”

“然而，当说到应用图标，我希望就如何优化图标本身作更多研究。这让我开始思考，我们可以如何使用已有的营销渠道，如Facebook和Google广告来测试图标的不同版本，看看哪一个的点击率更高和受众接近我们现有的用户基础。

“我们用Facebook广告（这个更便宜）做测试，因为我们希望带动我们的品牌在Facebook上的知名度。每一个变体的文本描述都保持不变，只改变了图标—-我们有三个不同的版本。

“最后，赢家诞生了，它被当作最终版进入App Store。在决定使用哪个图标时，最好能测试一下。”

毕竟这是非常方便的事，而且还很容易执行。

你可以在广告网站上发布一系列关于各个图标变体的介绍，这样做的成本很低，不出一天就能看到反馈—-快速寻找可以帮助确定哪个图标会在应用商店的页面上大放光彩的信息。

以上就是制作手机应用图标的五个步骤。

看起来似乎没什么大不了，但设计良好的图标可以带动下载量，让用户更愿意把你的图标留在主屏幕上，甚至有助于媒体报道—-这是那些看重大小的人的解药。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

5 simple steps to designing the perfect app icon

by George Osborn

Human beings are superficial creatures. Despite the fact that we all love the idea that we only judge something on the quality of what lies within, external appearances always have an impact on our final decision.

And no, despite what you think, we’re not talking about dating here – rather, we’re talking about the way app icons influence the decisions consumers make about which titles they or do not download.

Because those little tiny squares – sometimes with curved edges, sometimes not – have a genuine impact on just how many downloads your title can amass. What’s more, poorly designed ones can result in your release being rejected by the platform holder.

At WWDC back in June, poor app icon design was listed as one of the top three reasons developers find themselves banned from the App Store. Ouch.

So, kind souls that we are, we’ve elected to serve up a short and snappy guide to delivering the perfect app icon – one that will enable you to keep the platform holders happy and, in the process, please a few consumers along the way too.

Research design trends

Remember all the hullabaloo about the shift from iOS 6 to iOS 7 in the past few months?

For developers, any update to Apple’s OS tends to revolve around ironing out any bugs the new version throw their way, but this time, iOS 7 had another trick up its sleeve. An entirely new look.

Yes, iOS 7 went ‘flat’, which as a result, changed the way consumers view their home screens and – most importantly – what icons they want sat on them.

Gone was the skeuomorphism of the original OS and the fake materials that came with and in came the aforementioned Jony Ive approved flatness, with bright colours and subtle shading aiding Apple’s icons with the “follows your eyes around the room” 3D effect of parallax.

While developers on rival platforms, such as Windows Phone, were well used to keeping their app icons ‘flat’, Apple’s change in direction meant iOS developers had to make a big shift to fit in with the new way of doing things.

Just take a look at YouTube’s icons below: the old novelty TV would look ridiculous on iOS 7 in comparison to their newest iteration.

Evolution is the order of the day in design and, while you’ve always got room to say no to it, fitting in with it makes sure that people searching for apps or displaying them on your home screen are more likely to keep them.

Apple’s old YouTube icon vs. Google’s latest ‘flat’ version

So, before you set out to make your icon, sit down with your good friend Google (or Bing, if that’s your poison) and make sure you know which way the prevailing winds of design are going to make sure you can get them into your app’s sails.

Scope out the competition

While you do have to make sure that you’re sticking to design convention of the day to ensure your app icon fits in both on user’s home screen and, perhaps more importantly, your chosen marketplace, standing out from the crowd is equally important.

Finding the right balance is anything but easy, but a quick look at how packed certain genres can get – such as a search for “match 3″ games on the App Store below – just proves how important it is that your icon offers some form of distinction.

As Mark Stern, UX Evangelist at Apple, said in a recent talk, “if an icon looks great, and it’s been carefully crafted, it’s reasonable to assume that the rest of the design of the app is also great and also well-crafted.”

Take the time out, therefore, to spend your time searching through the App Store and other marketplaces for potential gaming rivals, identify which ones stand out and thoee that fade into the background and create a portfolio of the best to help inspire you onto design greatness.

Give it a bit of character

One of the best things about gaming is the creation of memorable characters. Gaming icons that both catch your eye at the time and, even years on, retain a special place in the player’s memories.

Whether we’re talking Mario and Sonic, or – to bring things up to the current day – Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V, special characters have a habit of burning themselves deep into the player’s brain and, as a result, helping to translate the game they inhabit to the audience.

They also happen to be great for helping to make your app icon stand out from the crowd.

Take a look at the examples below: Murder Files, Ridiculous Fishing, Badland. The characters players invest their time and money into are up front and making their presence known on the App Store front.

Based on this advice, your major challenge is showing off your main character in the best possible light to get attention within the icon, with the above serving as valuable examples.

In all cases, the characters dominate the image, but each takes the opportunity to inject their icon with character.

Vlambeer’s Billy is letting off his ridiculous machine gun rounds, the quaint iOS 7 friendly Hannah Dakota captures Murder Files quintessentially Britishness and Badland balances the game’s superb environment with its protagonist to produce a strong image.

By bringing out the character in your game into your icon, you put the stamp of individuality on your title and makes sure that users identify your game as something distinct from everything else.

Keep things simple

As with all things related to mobile, simplicity is essential to success when it comes to icon design.

Even after the ‘phablet’ revolution, screen sizes are still relatively small and an app icon either in an app store or installed on a home page has little more than a few square centimetres to call its own – a factor that can lead to disaster if you aren’t careful.

That’s something Axel Hunter, a freelance graphic and web designer, believes. To him, simplicity is at the heart of everything.

“When it comes to the design of an app icon I am a firm believer that less is more,” Hunter told us.

“As well as looking cool, having a simple design also means that the designer can choose a particular essential element and polish it instead of overloading and cluttering the icon.”

So how can you keep things simple? Hunter has one major rule to follow that’ll help you along the way.

“Strong, simple design is key featuring one single graphic that has a strong relationship with either the brand or the app’s theme,” he concludes.

In short, that means you need to give essential graphical elements room to breathe by discarding text from the icon, selecting from a small palette of relevant and complementary colours while creating unique shapes to help you stand out if your game isn’t character driven.

In the land of the short attention span, those who can make their point quickest will win. So always keep that in mind when you’re finalising your icon design.

Test, test, test

Doing all the above is likely to get you most of the way towards designing a great icon but, chances are, you’ll won’t know you’ve struck gold until other people see it. Advice from third parties can make all the difference.

For instance, if you’ve got a character driven game and you have four amazing characters, who do you feature?

And if you haven’t got a character in your game (perhaps you’re making a puzzler) would it be better to feature, say, an in game gem or would it be better to come up with a unique design instead?

The answer can be tough to find through the app stores themselves, as it’s difficult to pin down a game’s success or failure specifically to its icon.

Fortunately, Meaghan Fitzgerald, head of marketing at 23snaps has come up with a great way of working out which icon works best – all via the power of advertising.

“Coming from a web marketing background, I used to A/B testing every element of my marketing campaigns so it was strange to move to a mobile world where that is much harder,” Fitzgerald told us.

“However when it came to the app icon, I wanted to do some more research on how we could optimise the icon itself. That got me thinking about how we could use our existing marketing channels, like Facebook and Google ads, to test out different versions of our icon and see which got the best click through rate with an audience similar to our existing user base.

“We did the test with Facebook ads, which were inexpensive, as we wanted to drive awareness of our brand on Facebook. We kept the text in the ad exactly the same in every variation but just changed the icons – we had three different options.

“In the end, there was a pretty clear winner, which ended up going into the App Store. It was a great way to test the icons before we committed to a winner.”

Pretty handy stuff then. Best of all, it’s very easy to set up.

You can set up a string of adverts boasting each of your icon variants on an ad network with a tiny budget in a couple of hours from scratch and get the results back within a day – an invaluably quick turnaround for information that’ll help you make sure that your app icon shines on the App Store pages.

So that’s our five step round up to creating an iconic app icon for your game.

It may seem like a small thing, but a well designed icon can lead to more downloads, keep your app on a user’s home screen and can even help boost any press coverage you get; a perfect antidote to those who say that size matters.(source:pocketgamer)