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How polished UI (icon) helped my iPad app's downloads (stats inside)
- yehanyin 14y agoThanks for the stats share. And the nice app too, :)
- digitalengineer 14y agoHow can you seriously say this "And we hired a designer on Elance to design an icon. It costs us $50, but absolutely worth the money" and then this:"Icon is super important. Make sure you hired the right talent"? As a designer I like the design, but 50 bucks? "worth the money"? I have no idea why anyone would want to sell their design for just 50 bucks. Is this designer your friend? One thing I do know for sure: If they ask 50 bucks for an icon they'll be very bussy but out of business within a month.
- highace 14y agoFrom the look of it I think it's a stock template icon with some tweaking?
- digitalengineer 14y agoThink youre right. Here is one thats even nicer: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-78548530/stock-vector-vector-retro-camera-xxl-icon.html?src=c1df4beb98befd320146eccbfeb79bad-3-2 http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-78548530/stock-vector-vector...
- paulyan 14y agonice...
- digitalengineer 14y agoWant to buy it? Just 50 bucks ;-) Or 39 euro's for 5 images if you sign up for shitterstock yourselve.
- digitalengineer 14y agoBig problem righ here: Restrictions part 2, #15: You may not use these images as part of a trademark or logo... http://www.shutterstock.com/licensing.mhtml http://www.shutterstock.com/licensing.mhtml
- MatthewPhillips 14y agoThe $50 icons are done by offshoaring companies. They make their money by turning over designs very quickly, not paying their designers very much, and reusing designs over and over (with small modifications). None of the designs are built from scratch. Most are dreadfully ugly; this is the most attractive Elance icon I've ever seen, and I don't think it's gorgeous by any stretch. If you want a geniunely good designed icon just go to dribbble, be willing to spend $500+ and you'll get something unique.
- paulyan 14y agoas a young startup, it's important to balance between attractiveness and expense, Dribbble is too expensive for me...
- digitalengineer 14y agoDribble is too expensive for just about any startup ;-) I did my own design (but thats sort of my job). It's no App but the logo involves a camera as well. Doing something/anything with a camera is difficult as everything has been done. Here's my take (upper left): http://royaltyfreemodels.nl/ http://royaltyfreemodels.nl/
- paulyan 14y agohmm, upper left has no camera, i think...
- digitalengineer 14y agoOld school camera's required the photographer to focus in on the image manually to create a good, sharp photo. The viewfinder was inside the lens to help you do this by two halves of a circle that needed to create a good circle. When they did the image was sharp. My logo features the viewfinder. (As I help photographers find the right people).
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- paulyan 14y agoThanks @digitalengineer for your comments, yes it's relatively cheep from all the offering's. Actually this is my first try, and the result absolutely exceeds my expectation. i guess it's because the designer is from India, so the cost is kept low. i dont think it's possible in US or EU...
- digitalengineer 14y agoI think you're right. The cheapest possibility would be crowdsurfing something like 99designs.com
- raverbashing 14y agoThis $50 for an icon is like paying $50 for a simple CMS. Of course, for $50 they get a stock icon with their name on it (like, click on Edit Text on PS and type the new one) "Wooden texture is a fashionable design in 2012" Yes, please, skeuomorphism up to 11 "because it's fashionable"
- aresant 14y agoHighlights the need for some basic A/B testing platform within app stores, though I see the complexity that prevents it being a priority.
- paulyan 14y agoi dont think Apple would consider this, :-(, that's why i wrote and shared it, as Apple is unlikely to figure out for us...
- grimborg 14y agoThe title font is horrible imho.
- paulyan 14y agoAppreciate for your comments, if you try it and provide more comments, that would be perfect :-)
- 54mf 14y agoPersonally, I think the "Padgram" font is nice. Didn't work well for "Instapin" - made the "I" look funky - but looks suitable for Padgram. I'd tighten up the space between the "P" and "a", and between the "d" and "g", but that's just my own nitpicking.
- paulyan 14y agoGood thinking's, definitely worth trying...
- francov88 14y agoGreat post, and I agree with the idea that good design makes a huge difference, but I would have like to see more conclusive data. Seemed a little superficial and also like you believe the $50 icon was the source all the popularity. I would have looked at how many people shared the app after the redesign, how many people invited friends, how many more ratings and reviews you got, how often users performed an "action" everyday, how many days elapsed between log-ins (compared to before), the percentage of "active users" vs user base etc. Keep up the great work!
- paulyan 14y agothanks for the comments, @francov88, i will keep up the work and keep sharing. Up to now, I think Padgram still has potential to grow. Among all the Instagram iPad app, Padgram has relatively good design and distinguishing features. I will share more data as it goes.
- reidrac 14y agoThe icon reminds me of Instagram. Is it possible that something as simple as that did increase the downloads?
- JohnCastle 14y agoPadgram, InstaPin.... --> Instagram... This is not really creative + the logo which is also copied
- youtoutou 14y agoWhy is it not creative? I think the logo is just a little common, but not copied.
- paulyan 14y agohi @JohnCastle, for the top Instagram apps, the names are: - InstaPad - InstaBrowser - InstaMap And web services: - Webstagram I think the problem is in nature in what we're doing. It's an Instagram app, how can user recognize you without a perceptive name? And see what's happening on Twitter is more persuasive. Almost all Twitter apps' icon is a bird, but people still love Tweetbot to death. I am open to constructive suggestions.
- nroach 14y agoHow do you know whether the increase in downloads is due to "good design" vs. confusion with an official instagram product? The new icon bears a strong resemblance to the instagram icon (particularly at small sizes). Isn't it possible that instead of good design you're simply seeing an increase in conversions by unsophisticated buyers and you're gaining a benefit from that confusion with a well-established brand? It sounds like you're probably not US-based, but it might be worth considering whether there is any legal exposure for trade dress infringement and/or trademark dilution.
- 89a 14y agoThe new UI is even more like Instagram than the icon is. Intentionally confusing
- paulyan 14y agoIf you look at all Instagram apps in the store, you'll find there are many Instagram apps designed with a 'camera' icon. We're definitely not the first one. Do you know 'Pinstagram'? They just changed the name to "Pictacular", and it's based in the US. I dont want to say you're making discrimination over non US-based companies. And I don't think it's right to infringe Instagram brand. If i am not doing right, i am happy to change immediately.
- potatolicious 14y ago> "If you look at all Instagram apps in the store, you'll find there are many Instagram apps designed with a 'camera' icon. We're definitely not the first one." And this is supposed to mean something? The fact that there are other people in the App Store capitalizing off of brand confusion and design mimicry excuses... what exactly?
- atlbeer 14y agoCausation and correlation? 1) You redesigned your entire app 2) You updated your app icon Downloads go up because of #2?
- paulyan 14y agoI did both. I think people are more interested in #2 (because it's outsourced and the icon itself is a 'camera'), but #1 is definitely one of the reasons
- tathagata 14y agoWhen developing iOS apps, if you cannot hire a designer in your team, then you or someone else in your team should try and learn some basic design skills. In a market like the Apple App Store where there are a huge number of apps, the easiest way to differentiate yourself is with the help of good design. You are going in the right direction though with the design. Best of luck.
- youtoutou 14y agoThank you! It's hard and costly to find a full-time and suitable designer. So a contract or part-time designer is a good idea.
- 89a 14y ago> Wooden texture is a fashionable design in 2012. It’s said to be good for photo viewing app. Our design combines wooden texture with transparent glass. It has the metaphor that your iPad is a wooden table, you put glass on it and photo over the glass. It’s good, isn’t it? > It costs us $50, but absolutely worth the money > Brush Script used as a logo This is a fucking joke… right?
- paulyan 14y agoHey @89a, can you detail which is the joke? Maybe what we did is stupid. But that's what we genuinely thought, tried and shared. We are serious to develop a good enough Instagram ipad app as we're not satisfied with existing solutions. And that's why people love our app even there are already dozens out there.
- ArekDymalski 14y agoI guess you could make more impacting decisions if you stopped "betting what happens on user side". Anyway thanks for lessons learned post. These are always inspiring.
- paulyan 14y agoi definitely upvote this! We have been hesitating on what we did. We're going to make something ourselves are happy with in next version. I will keep sharing. stay tuned
- dthedavid 14y agoI find it a problem when you have 2 UI designers and cannot come up with a great design on day one. Your new design isn't spectacular either. A great resource is to look at the designs of all of your competitors and understand what is great about all of them. Also $50 for an icon is very cheap. At that price, I'm not sure how it would motivate any good designer to spend even an hour on a design. I usually pay $150-$300 per icon for my apps (smartieants.com) and I find it barely enough to keep the designer motivated.
- paulyan 14y agolooking at competitors or parent product (in my case "Instagram") is definitely effective. However, i have to take the copycat name... Designer is very expensive for sure. Which country are your designers from? Mine is india, so relatively cheap.
- dthedavid 14y agoMy designers are from Europe and South East Asia.
- sabret00the 14y agoPolished everything helps. I think some research was done the other day that shows users look at Icons then Screenshots then Reviews or something like that. Not enough devs/organisations understand the importance of showing the latest design and the impact it has on their customers.
- onetwothreefour 14y agoCorrelation != Causation. Too many variables.