Icon designs can be simple, with flat two-dimensional drawing or a black silhouette, or complex, presenting a combination of graphic design elements such as one or more linear and radial color gradients, projected shadows, contour shades, and three-dimensional perspective effects.
In order to maintain consistency in the look of a device, OS manufacturers offer detailed guidelines for the development and use of icons on their systems. This is true for both standard system icons and third party application icons to be included in the system. The system icons currently in use have typically gone through widespread international acceptance and testing.
Regardless of the operating system application icons are all generally unique, so they stand out from one another. Folder icons help you identify what’s inside of them. File icons generally display a document with an application logo that lets you know what application created it or is the default to open it.
Icon design factors have also been the topic for extensive usability studies. The design itself involves a high level of skill in combining an attractive graphic design with the required usability features. Icons are meant to look like the item that they represent. The icon needs to be clear and easily recognizable, able to display on monitors of widely varying size and resolutions.
No comments:
Post a Comment