App icon
- Thread starter Yiliya
- Start date
I continue to feel that consistency between iOS and Android on this is important - not only does Google Play suck at trademark protection, but 2/3 of our downloads are now coming from sources outside of Google Play, and many of those from stores with even worse protection than Google's, so having a single unified icon helps ensure people are getting steered towards the genuine article and not some sketchy Chinese company that decided to stick a 魚 in their dictionary app's icon too.
Also, Android fragmentation also makes it extremely difficult to come up with an icon design that feels clearly "Android" - we've got a ton of users running MIUI and FlymeOS and FireOS and other wacky versions of Android with heavily reskinned UIs that use totally different patterns for system icons and apply various annoying transformations to icons from third-party apps. So an icon that was designed to look at home on the screen of a Nexus 5 running stock Lollipop would not necessarily represent an improvement for the vast majority of users (and, given Chinese OEMs' propensity for brazenly ripping off Apple UI designs, might even represent a downgrade for some). Adopting Material design for our in-app UI was far easier to justify since that mostly just has to harmonize with itself (a few horribly butchered system alert dialogs notwithstanding).
There are lots of utilities available to swap in alternate icons if you find ours bothersome, though.
Also, Android fragmentation also makes it extremely difficult to come up with an icon design that feels clearly "Android" - we've got a ton of users running MIUI and FlymeOS and FireOS and other wacky versions of Android with heavily reskinned UIs that use totally different patterns for system icons and apply various annoying transformations to icons from third-party apps. So an icon that was designed to look at home on the screen of a Nexus 5 running stock Lollipop would not necessarily represent an improvement for the vast majority of users (and, given Chinese OEMs' propensity for brazenly ripping off Apple UI designs, might even represent a downgrade for some). Adopting Material design for our in-app UI was far easier to justify since that mostly just has to harmonize with itself (a few horribly butchered system alert dialogs notwithstanding).
There are lots of utilities available to swap in alternate icons if you find ours bothersome, though.
@mikelove
If somebody wanted to copy your app's design to scam people out of their money, they will. They can copy whatever icon you're using at the time, your app's name, and maybe even the UI. Not much you or anyone can do about it. But since Pleco is hardly known amongst the Chinese (being aimed at English speaking learners of Chinese) this possibility is quite low, I'd think.
Anyway, my point is, since the UI is now following the material guidelines, might as well finish off the job with a brand new icon. Very few apps (I haven't seen any myself) on the Play store have a classic iOS7 icon with a white shape on a gradient.
If somebody wanted to copy your app's design to scam people out of their money, they will. They can copy whatever icon you're using at the time, your app's name, and maybe even the UI. Not much you or anyone can do about it. But since Pleco is hardly known amongst the Chinese (being aimed at English speaking learners of Chinese) this possibility is quite low, I'd think.
Anyway, my point is, since the UI is now following the material guidelines, might as well finish off the job with a brand new icon. Very few apps (I haven't seen any myself) on the Play store have a classic iOS7 icon with a white shape on a gradient.
I'm actually not as concerned about outright knockoffs - I'm more concerned about intentional confusion, other Chinese learning products (not even necessarily dictionaries - courses and such) trying to make people think they're developed by Pleco. We have in fact had numerous companies (including some fairly big ones in the space) try that - had one on iOS that even inserted a 魚 in their icons to make them look like they were affiliated with Pleco.
And I'd have to disagree with that "very few apps" comment - a quick scan through the Google Play Top Free charts suggests that roughly 50% of top Android apps use icons that are either pixel-for-pixel identical with their iOS equivalents or differ only in their corner shapes. Your app icon is your brand, more-or-less - the average user is far more likely to recognize our icon than our swimming fish logo - and consistency on that front matters; look at Instagram, that icon (while beautiful) really only "fit" on pre-Retina-display, pre-iOS-7 iPhones, yet they've stuck with it both on iOS 7 and on Android because it's so recognizable.
Anyway, as I said you can easily swap in an alternate icon if it bothers you personally, as can anyone else, but for the place our app icon actually matters most - app store catalog listings - I think the arguments in favor of keeping the iOS 7 design are quite strong. We may consider adjusting that design at some point - picking a different color, say - but we'd want to do it in a way that could remain consistent between both platforms, so I still don't think we'd make it particularly Material-ish.
And I'd have to disagree with that "very few apps" comment - a quick scan through the Google Play Top Free charts suggests that roughly 50% of top Android apps use icons that are either pixel-for-pixel identical with their iOS equivalents or differ only in their corner shapes. Your app icon is your brand, more-or-less - the average user is far more likely to recognize our icon than our swimming fish logo - and consistency on that front matters; look at Instagram, that icon (while beautiful) really only "fit" on pre-Retina-display, pre-iOS-7 iPhones, yet they've stuck with it both on iOS 7 and on Android because it's so recognizable.
Anyway, as I said you can easily swap in an alternate icon if it bothers you personally, as can anyone else, but for the place our app icon actually matters most - app store catalog listings - I think the arguments in favor of keeping the iOS 7 design are quite strong. We may consider adjusting that design at some point - picking a different color, say - but we'd want to do it in a way that could remain consistent between both platforms, so I still don't think we'd make it particularly Material-ish.