App store pet peeve...devs, stop putting the app name on the icon.

mcdj · Aug 15, 2008

If some of these developers put more effort into a nice icon and less into trying to squeeze the app name onto it, we might have some nicer icons. Do these guys realize we see the app name below the icon? And yes, I know some people turn the labels off, but the devs are not doing this to please that small minority.

If you must include the app name on the icon, at least make it stylized initals.

Buschmaster · Aug 15, 2008

Tap Tap Revenge is the only app I have that has the icon with the name and I think the icon is just fine.

Any apps you can point us to with particularly bad icons?

mcdj · Aug 15, 2008

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

Urban Spoon, GeoPedia, Movies.app. Urban Spoon isn't a terrible icon, but it could be much nicer if the spoon was more graphic and bigger.

stiphone · Aug 15, 2008

i dun see anything wrong with the logos. I'm fine with them so far.

marksman · Aug 16, 2008

I could care less what the icon looks like for an application as it has zero bearing on how the application or the phone function in any way shape or form.

Evev12 · Aug 16, 2008

mcdj said:
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

Urban Spoon, GeoPedia, Movies.app. Urban Spoon isn't a terrible icon, but it could be much nicer if the spoon was more graphic and bigger.

I wouldn't say pet peeve, I'd call it more of an unhealthy over-analytical obsession....maybe OCD???? I do freelance graphic design and the icons look completely fine to me - even if I did decide to REALLY nit-pick every aspect of them I might change a thing or 2 here or there, not everything is going to be made to fit YOUR tastes...not even the great iphone itself perfectly fullfills all my wants. If you really want an icon that meets your every need, develop an app and post it in the store!

stevearm · Aug 16, 2008

mcdj said:
If some of these developers put more effort into a nice icon and less into trying to squeeze the app name onto it, we might have some nicer icons. Do these guys realize we see the app name below the icon? And yes, I know some people turn the labels off, but the devs are not doing this to please that small minority.

If you must include the app name on the icon, at least make it stylized initals.

Agree. What's the point of putting the name on the icon when it just appears below anyway.

spyker3292 · Aug 16, 2008

I just hate the ones that look like they were (and probably are) made in MS Paint.

Night Spring · Aug 16, 2008

Personally, what I hate are icons that don't tell me what the app does. Especially when I'm scanning the app store looking for apps that might interest me, the ones with icons that immediately lets me know what the app does have a much greater chance of grabbing my attention.

mcdj · Aug 16, 2008

Evev12 said:
I wouldn't say pet peeve, I'd call it more of an unhealthy over-analytical obsession....maybe OCD???? I do freelance graphic design and the icons look completely fine to me !

Umm. I'm a retoucher and graphic designer. They kinda sorta pay me to be over analytical? You know, at the pixel level? If my clients heard me say every icon on the App Store looked "completely fine to me", the phone would stop ringing. I guess it depends on whether your clients are Fortune 500 companies or the local pizzeria.

Actually, yeah, you're right, all the icons are all fine. I'll just stop having higher expectations from now on. No need to push the envelope whatseover.

And here's some of the nicest ones...