Your icon is likely the first thing players see of your game, and a fully optimised icon can have a huge impact on downloads.
So what makes an effective app icon? Michael Flarup, designer at PixelResort and author of The App Icon Book, says that the basics of eye-catching design have not changed.
“Styles come and go, but the job is the same: create a recognisable and scalable little piece of utilitarian art,” he says. “Clarity of concept and a unique silhouette are still paramount. The icons we remember fondly are the ones that feel well-crafted and connect with the viewer.”
Outside of being identifiable, Roberto Sbrolla at mobile growth agency AppAgent points to three key tenets of app icon design; genre recognition, uniqueness and consistency.
“The icon should instantly communicate what the game is about,” he says. “Google’s research shows that players are most influenced to try a new game if it belongs to a genre they typically enjoy. If a player can visualise the genre directly from the icon, its performance will improve.”
The second core tenet of good icon design, according to Sbrolla, is uniqueness.
“You want your icon to stand out versus your competitors,” he says. “Are you going to blend in? For example, all the icons in the Word genre are pretty similar. Or are you going to establish your own brand, spending substantial budgets on UA to build your visual recognition?”
Consistency is the third key element, says Sbrolla. “What you do with the icon sets expectations,” he continues. “Be consistent throughout the acquisition funnel; the icon is the first thing the user sees in the store. Visual consistency helps significantly with the conversion rate from visitors to the store page to installing the game.”
Developers don’t have a huge amount of room to make that first impression, and all of our experts agreed it’s important to avoid overcrowding.
“Don’t try to explain the whole game,” Flarup says. “Avoid thin line work, low contrast and complex metaphors that only make sense after a blog post. And the big one: don’t treat the icon as an afterthought. Anything short of a well-thought-out, well-executed icon is a missed opportunity with your strongest visual asset.”
CEO and founder of art outsourcing studio RocketBrush Alex Rublev agrees, and adds: “Too many small details create visual clutter that users can’t process at small sizes. Text on the icon is rarely readable at icon dimensions and takes up valuable space. And watch out for a mismatch between the icon style and your target audience. The icon needs to speak to the right audience.”
Flarup had some further best practices to share when first concepting your icon.
“Sketch a bunch of concepts without commitment, then graduate the best ones into pixels and iterate toward polish,” he says. “Aim for one idea, not five. Build a strong silhouette that reads at 32px and still looks great at 1024. Test on busy wallpapers, in light and dark, and inside the actual platform mask. Make sure the icon belongs to the same visual language as your UI and screenshots so the whole experience feels consistent. Polish is hard to define, but you know it when it’s there. It’s the care that permeates all the tiny decisions.”
But RocketBrush’s Rublev argues for a different approach, saying that a better use of time is creating a suite of different icons, rather than going all-in on one design.
“Don’t over-invest in creating one ‘perfect’ icon – that’s a common mistake,” he says. “It’s far more effective to create multiple different variants and test them. It’s extremely difficult to predict which icon will perform best, and often the winner is an unexpected or even strange variant you wouldn’t have bet on initially. You can always polish the winning version later.
“The key is an iterative approach: create variety, test with real users, let the data guide you, then refine. This beats spending weeks perfecting a single icon that might not resonate with your audience.”
Aesthetics are obviously important – but they also need to be considered as part of a wider plan for your game.
“Start with a strategy,” Sbrolla explains. “Consider genre recognition, uniqueness, and consistency. You want an icon that supports user acquisition, so it’s better not to improvise.”
He concludes: “A top-performing icon for a mobile game has been tested, consistently performs at or above peers’ conversion rate thresholds, and is memorable.”
