

Judging an App by its Cover - Techniques for Creating & Testing a Pro App Icon - jayfuerstenberg
http://jayfuerstenberg.com/devblog/judging-an-app-by-its-cover-techniques-and-tools-for-creating-and-testing-a-professional-app-icon

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fufulabs
I use this > <http://testico.net/> then i test it on my device (iphone 4S)
where i relocate it in a couple of pages. I also put it inside a folder too to
check if the icon is 'readable' there. Then i ask a few people if it stands
out. Then sometimes, i sleep then check it first thing in the morning where i
am groggy. If it passes all those then its a good icon. I may have to add a
check when I am in a bad mood or hungry for my method to be ultra
comprehensive.

If you have budget to spare, A/B test a few different variants on the Facebook
ad platform.

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Bill_Dimm
Would it kill the people at testico.net to display a one-sentence description
of what their site does? I had to view HTML source and read the meta
description:

"You can to put the icon you've created on your iPhone or iPad home screen,
and generate automatic previews of standard icon sizes on the standard iPhone
and iPad screens"

~~~
qwr
Testico is beta now. I will add description in next version. :)

Thank you for your feed back!

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colinplamondon
That really doesn't stand out in the App Store listings- the detail work is
all to emphasize the 512x512 version that doesn't matter. The only color is in
the middle keyhole, which isn't particularly visible at the smaller
resolution.

The old glowing keyhole was dramatically better- OP might want to take a look
at merging the two, with the new box design and the old glow, to help this
stand out more.

~~~
lnanek2
Yeah, the old icon with the bright glow really stuck out to me as well. Wish
we could have seen A/B tests, even ones off web ads like someone recommended
would have been better than nothing.

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est
> <http://testico.net>

> Your browser is out of date!

> PLEACE, UPDATE IT, OR DOWNLOAD ONE OF RECENT BROWSERS:

yeah, like my Chrome V21 is very out of date!

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smashing
This is the most insightful post on HN about icons that has ever been
submitted. A lot the people here would do well to take notice and learn
something about art design.

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gbog
I am always skeptical about color psychology: in China red is the color of joy
and wealth.

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ja27
The link to creative samples and the topic of icons was discussed here a
couple of weeks ago: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4031157>

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jsh4ft
Doesn't anyone else think it's ironic that the name is in all caps which
people seem to associate with spam?

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ricardobeat
The shadow under the black panel is unnecessary and breaks the perception of
depth.

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AznHisoka
I think having good app icon design is a luxury. There are many things to
worry about before your app icon.

~~~
cdeonier
One of the takeaways of the article is that the app icon is a form of a sales
pitch to a potential user. You can have a great product, but a poor icon will
hinder the visibility of said product. That being said, if I had to choose
between a great app icon or a great product, I'd choose the latter. But I'm
not convinced you are forced to choose only one.

