Is Your App Icon Losing You Sales?
Scott MorrisSolutions Engineer
Having been with 4mation since inception in 2001 while completing a Computer Science degree at UTS, Scott has played a variety of roles within the business through its almost 20 years of growth.
As a Certified AWS Solutions Architect, Scott has a strong ability to bridge the gap between the technical and business/user world. Scott has a deep understanding of the service we provide our clients having spent years as a Developer, Business Analyst, Team Lead, and Head of Delivery.
His focus now is heading up 4mation’s Internal Operations to make our work and suite of digital tools as efficient and effective as possible.
Whether you want to shop online, check restaurant menus, get directions, read email, or edit photos, “there’s an app for that”. And with 74% of Australian smartphone owners using their mobile apps to do all these things and more every day, its clear how valuable it is to have a mobile app for your business.
But did you know one of the most important aspects of your mobile app’s design is actually its icon?
Earlier this year at the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, Apple UX Evangelist Mike Stern described icon design as the most fundamental part of any mobile app.
“Your users aren’t going to judge your apps based on how many technologies you used, or how many APIs you integrated, or how elegant your code is. The way they’re going to judge your app is based on what it enables them to do, how it makes them feel. So with that in mind, its really important the design is… intuitive, engaging and beautiful.
“[Looking at icons in the app store]… you immediately begin to make a lot of assumptions on the user experience of these apps. So you look at them and start to make inferences about how enjoyable they’re going to be to use, how intuitive the interface is going to be, and how well its going to serve your needs… If an icon looks great, and its been carefully crafted, its reasonable to assume that the rest of the design of the app is also great and also well-crafted.”
N3V Games have experienced first hand just how true this is. Late last year their game Trainz Driver was performing reasonably well in the Apple App Store, but was performing poorly in both Google Play and Amazon. Further investigation revealed that Trainz Driver was even being outsold by Trainz Driver’s predecessor, My First Trainz Set.
N3V had spent a lot of time trying to develop a unique app icon that accurately represented the nature of the gameplay of Trainz Driver and also their brand, but after examining the evidence they eventually decided that their highly-stylized icon could be alienating customers. The icon was redesigned using graphics taken directly from the game, and the app was re-released on Amazon.
Sales doubled overnight. The following day, they had tripled, and continued to climb. Similar results followed once the new icon was rolled out in Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Not getting the results you want from your mobile app? We can help—not just with your app’s icon design but also other app features and new functionality, such as interactive games and hardware integration. Give us a call on (02) 9213 1300 to see how we can help.
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