Day 5 of 100: GIF Maker
UI design challenge with context and a process.
Welcome to day 5 of my 100 days of building UI elements.
Identity matters a lot. Don’t joke with it. I remember years back as a student in secondary school, If you dare miss straightening(ironing) your school uniform, one of the few options to save your head from being a laughing stock in class is to put on your glorious school cardigan. But the interesting thing was that the cardigan used as an escape from appearing untidy was a “trademark dress-code” for some girls. And we named and remembered them as cardigan girls — Come rain, come sunshine, they wear their cardigans every other day— they don’t change it.
That brings us to our challenge today — App Icon design. It is easily neglected but very key and contributes to the overall success of any app. It opens the door to your app, so you see it needs serious attention. Even at app market stores, it is what draws people closer to pressing the download button.
Preamble
So today’s prompt confused me a bit, I was told to “design an app icon” but mistook it for “design any logo” and that left me trying to “restore the image of the Nigerian Police by redesigning their logo”. Actually I would have finished it but obedience most times is better than sacrifice.
So what was the new goal?
To quickly create an android app icon that is simple and obeys all known app icon design principles
After some research, I saw this summary from NN group which the principles guided me.
Summary: A user’s understanding of an icon is based on previous experience. Due to the absence of a standard usage for most icons, text labels are necessary to communicate the meaning and reduce ambiguity.
And other insights gotten are:
If you must design new icons, strive to make them easy to recognize and memorize by following these guidelines:
Keep the design simple and schematic
Avoid words only icons.
Test the icons for recognizability
Test the icons for memorability
Use a shape or symbol that defines the app instantly.
Simplicity — the key to a Greta app icon
Create bold designs with Icons.
Use shapes or symbols, they make lasting impressions.
Remember scale
Use vibrant color.
Think Icon and not image.
Always include a visible text label
I conceived a GIF MAKER APP IDEA sometime ago and I thought about making an app icon for it and that’s exactly what I tried doing for today’s challenge.
Incase you have not seen previous posts:
- Day 1: Day 1 of 100: A minimal, easy to complete sign up form for Jumia.com
- Day 2: Day 2 of 100: Card checkout UX flow — from Diamond bank online to Interswitch WebPay Platform
- Day 3: Day 3 of 100: Landing page that engages — A Wakanow case study
- Day 4 of 100: A Simple Calculator App
Thank you so much for reaching the end of this article. Your feedback will be highly appreciated and please don’t forget to “recommend” and “share” the article if it made sense to you.
