Developing a software application is not easy at all; apart from the effective creation of the application you'll have to think of other things as well, like: making the software easy to work with, giving it a unique and appealing look, making it better than other software, etc. Apart from the qualities of the application, these little things are the ones that promote your software application among the end users. If the application is easy to use, has a friendly user interface, the look of the program is unique yet not too flashy a lot more people will want to have it and use it. On the other hand, we should be careful about the overall look of the entire application because if it looks too different or it is too striking, many of the new users will be reserved in trying it. The reticence might be coming from the fact that, due to the unconventional look, they will think that it is hard to work with this application. Also, the icons of the application must be eye-catching but not too flashy or different from the usual.
In order to have success with your software application it must be different from the others so to have some extra points in front of your competitors. Sometimes, it is not enough to have an application that is working very well because the competition might have the same type of application that has the same characteristics. You have to make your application stand out from the crowd and this can be done very easily. For example, you can make it different by customizing your icons. Using custom icons has many advantages compared with the free icons that can be easily found on the Internet. One of the advantages is the fact that your icons will be different from any other icons found in similar applications. Using free downloaded icons might be tricky because it is possible that somebody else used the same icons and this will not be good for the success of your application. End users might see it as a cheap solution and might refuse to give a fair chance to the software.
Another advantage for using custom icons is that the development process will be completely passed on to the designer of the icons, unless you decide to design them yourself. All you need to do is make the designer understand exactly what you need your icons to look like and how different they must be. Based on those indications the icon designer will produce some sketches that must be approved by you in order to proceed further with the final version of the icons. So, a lot of the work is on designer's account which must have a lot of creativity in order to produce something unique. Involving a designer in the process of creating the icons for your application will save you a lot of precious time and also will reassure you that no other application will have icons like yours, so it will not be possible for end users to confound your software with others.
While you're thinking of making custom icons for your application, take in consideration another idea: to make a custom set of icons. A set of icons contains all the possible icons that you will need for or in connection with an application. It does not matter that you will not need all of them from the beginning, because in time it is possible that you will need some extra icons and it is better to have them handy.
To make your application different from the others you can also use favicons, which is short for "favorite icons" also known as page icons. Basically, these types of icons are the ones that integrate into the other application like for example web-browsers. Often favicons represent the organization's or website's logo. They are used to build a more customized appearance for the respective application. The use of favicons has some advantages: your application will be easily recognized by the users in case they don't remember the application's name, it will promote the logo of the application, it will make your application look more professional, etc. Favicons are usually displayed into the web browsers, next to your website's page and you'll not see many applications or websites that have this facility.
Another thing you can do for making your application stand out of the competition is to have custom file type icons assigned to file types by default. Having these distinct file types is not difficult to achieve but they will make a big difference. The end user will have no problem in easily locating the files of your application among the other files. Besides that, having custom file type icons will be another way of promoting the logo of your application; the larger the number of icons and file type icons is, the larger will be the number of people to see and easily recognize your application.
Considering all the above we have to say that having a customized application is better that having one with a common look. Common looks can be easily confounded and the user will not see the difference between one application or the other unless they will definitely be different. For example, if he has two applications for the same purpose and the applications' icons or file type icons are almost alike, he will choose the first one that he sees. But if one of the applications has a custom, easily recognizable icon he will know as soon as he sees it that this is the application that he's looking for. These are only few tricks that software designers should take in consideration when making an application that has a commercial purpose.
If you are looking for professional icons please go to http://www.iconshock.com - icon design
10 Ways Web Site Text Can Impact Your Reader's Buying... Read More
Out there in the WWW there are thousands sites using... Read More
With so many new websites going up, it is hard... Read More
Color is everywhere and conveys a message even if we... Read More
Does your website need a re-design? Here are some questions... Read More
Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic... Read More
There are literally thousands of different options, styles and formats... Read More
As search engine marketers, we spend an enormous amount of... Read More
Over the course of the last decade, the Internet has... Read More
What is the relationship between Marketing and Web designing? How... Read More
1. Web site File Structure / File NamingMost search engines... Read More
Drop Capitals are frequently used in many newspapers, books and... Read More
A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your... Read More
Creating your web site can be a tricky process. Choosing... Read More
CNN.com's designers have gone out of their way to make... Read More
Easy That's how you'd like life to be, right? Especially... Read More
You've thought about it and you're ready to go. You're... Read More
So your web site's online and you've got high rankings... Read More
"How to turn "slightly interested" customers into "I've got to... Read More
Websites, there's literally billions of them out there in cyber-space.... Read More
When it comes to marketing your website, you should really... Read More
What is a Website Template?Many smart and savvy businesses are... Read More
The "Wow" factor that accompanied the introduction of streaming media... Read More
Your web site is the key to your success on... Read More
This is my second article on maximising web site viewability.... Read More
Creating an appealing, functional, and effective Web site is much... Read More
First impressions are extremely important if you hope to do... Read More
Squeeze pages are a very hot topic in the internet... Read More
Colors convey emotions and emotions heavily influence the decision-making process.... Read More
Did you know that many folks make "buying decisions" when... Read More
The great debate: how much copy you should have on... Read More
Increasing the length of time a visitor is on your... Read More
In this article, I will attempt to cover the basics... Read More
Your web site is like your car. Both are significant... Read More
Since you'll spend lots of time and money to create... Read More
It seems that almost every Tom Dick and Harry do... Read More
Usability isn't only for Web design. It's also applicable in... Read More
There are plenty of Drupal Modules that you can install... Read More
An application is not ready for use unless you have... Read More
1. Lack of overall strategy and clear definition of success:Most... Read More
The Internet has seen an explosion in so called 'lance'... Read More
I'm sure you've all heard the saying 'Build it and... Read More
The question that I most frequently hear from people is... Read More
With so many new websites going up, it is hard... Read More
Whether a business has just got off the ground or... Read More
Before you start worrying about marketing your website on the... Read More
Web usability is perhaps the most important factor in any... Read More
Web advertising has taken many forms, including those that appear... Read More
One of the most popular methods of traffic generation is... Read More
Building a website that is exactly what you want and... Read More
Web Design |