7 Tips to Use Win-Win Icons to Flavour Your Project

Web icons can be compared with the road signs for Internet-surfers. They highlight the meaning of the paragraphs, blocks or buttons nearby and give a cue what action to take. Smart icons are supposed to make navigation easier and the website itself recognizable.

Most of Internet users don’t start reading the content at once they have entered the website. They give it a quick glance, scan some outstanding blocks and headings. And it’s important to hold the users attention by drawing their eyes to the visually interesting objects such as web icons.

Whether it is a website or some software interface web icons add extra visualization to the project. They illustrate, they speak up and emphasize. And certainly they bring attention of the users to the separate important items.
Web icons are indicators, separators and accents for any project.

Delicious icons for the website are also like stylish accessories for your clothing. Design is all about the details. These small details are essential for the website or application design. They create the overall concept filling the image with the proper emotions and meanings. The tiny but crucial elements should be selected with taste and caution.

Following the tips below you will be able to use web icons reasonably and succeed with your project.

1. Find a nice and rich icons resource to select the ready-made icons for your project.

After the general mockup is ready and some graphical elements are designed it’s recommended to think over the details thoroughly. More often you lack time or skills to design each icon individually. Such details as web icons can be designed by authoritative freelance illustrators but custom design requires much time, efforts and is usually quite expensive. You will be getting through the tedious process of explaining your vision, confirming half-way variants etc.

To avoid this headache you may download professional icons from some great icons stock or a similar resource. You will find see the final look of the icons and may choose best matching ones. This workaround makes getting the proper icons for your project quicker and easier. One of such great resources is Icondemon.com. You will find more than 5300 icons of any kind and look there.

2. Make icons match with one another and with the layout on the whole.

To represent good style you should make all the icons in your project harmonize with one another: just like shoes and bags for women do. Smart match of the details can make the whole image striking and sophisticated.

The icons should look cool not just against the blank background but in the certain environment. They should go with the whole style of the website/application and its details perfectly as well. So it’s recommended not simply to purchase a good-looking icons set from some stock but to consider the general style of the project.

3. Use icons for listing your products and services.

Creating eye-catching web icons for listing your services is great for illustration purposes. Ordinary lists are dry as a chip. Boring lists usually leave the visitors indifferent to the content they list. Web icons can easily solve the problem but each icon should be selected in accordance with the list item it represents. Suitable icon should show up like a synonym of the particular product or service. Visualization of the products helps the visitors to see what’s offered immediately.

4. Make icons harmonize with the content but not distract from it.

The initial and major aim of the icons used on various websites is to help the visitors absorb and digest the offered information better. It’s great when the icons don’t distract from the website content but rather emphasize or complete it. The main requirement for usage of the professional icons is to place them relevantly to the content. The icons should look quite simple not to complicate the content they stand next to. To make the icons harmonize with the content just consider the website and the content block topic, the overall style and the color scheme.

Besides, you may use small icons quite effectively as well. They are often as interesting as the large ones but occupy less space and seem to be less distracting.

5. Place icons as separators between the blocks and paragraphs.

It easier to perceive the well-organized content of the website. So logically placed icons help to keep the clear layout structure. They serve as separators in this case. Being placed between the sections of text web icons help to arrange the layout blocks systematically. And surely, that is a great contribution to the website usability.

6. Include social media icons into your project.

The website is not just a striking and stylish image of the brand. It is the market playground first of all and should reflect the latest innovations and trends of Internet marketing as well. The websites tend to get involved into the social networks of all kinds nowadays. Usage of the social media and bookmarking icons on your website reflects its implication in popular social projects. Using bright stylish icons to link to social media sites adds charm and modern look to your website. The only caution: the icons used for this purpose should be recognizable to win.

7. Reserved icons style and realistic look is the key to success.

The separate elements should breathe freely on your website, leaving enough air between the blocks. The best blank space is a white or light background. If you don’t want your website to look messy minimalistic usage of icons is recommended. Along with being minimalistic the icons on the popular websites tend to look realistic. Realistic means truthful and truth evokes liking. Realistic look can be achieved by using 3D or pseudo 3D design technologies in icons design. 2D style can also look quite dimensional and truthful. The main thing is to make realistic icons resemble familiar objects from the real life. This will keep the users trust your content.

Keeping up with the tips above will help you to flavour the website/application with eye-catching and effecting web icons needed to draw more attenction to the content of your project.

As a matter of fact, web icons embody a number of symbols, objects and actions typical for the project and matching its style. Web icons play an essential role for any project – they ease comprehension and enhance interaction. Using the icons reasonably increases the chance for the success of your projects. We hope this material will help you to use the proper icons in a proper way.