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Friday, 08 February 2013 09:24

What a difference an icon makes

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As long as an app's icon is distinctive and looks professional, that's all that matters, right? Wrong! One developer has revealed that the right icon can make a huge difference to sales.

Whether you're giving an app away or charging for it, 'sales' are important as they either mean revenue or validation that your idea and execution were good.

But one company has bravely revealed that a change to app's icon can have an enormous effect on sales.

The company is N3V Games, and the app is Trainz Driver, a train simulator for Android and iOS.

N3V Games had thought carefully about the original icon (above, left), and tried to come up with a distinctive design that conveyed the idea without scaring off casual gamers.

While Trainz Driver was a top 20 success in its category in the App Store, it didn't fare as well on Google Play or Amazon, and unusually it was being outsold on Amazon by N3V's My First Trainz Set.

Comparing the icon with those from related products, the company realised that it was too stylised to say 'train driving' to a potential buyer.

So an hour's work resulted in a new pictorial icon (above, right; it appears to be a partial screen grab from the app) for the Amazon version of Trainz Driver.

What effect did it have? Find out on page 2.


Unit sales more than doubled overnight, then tripled, then ran at five times the previous level for a week.

Then the Christmas rush hit, and sales hit 20 times the levels achieved with the original icon. Since Christmas, they have been running at ten times higher than before the change.

Was it a fluke? Is there something about Amazon app buyers that makes them behave differently?

N3V applied the new icon to Trainz Driver in Google Play and sales doubled overnight and then settled around three times higher, taking the app into the top 25 of the casual games category.

Much the same happened when the new icon was applied to the iOS version.

"So there you have it. Who would have thought that something as easy as changing your app icon would have such a dramatic effect on sales? Due solely to a change of icon, we have witnessed increases of 10X sales on Amazon, 3X on Google Play and after only a few days, 3X on iTunes as well," said company president Tony Hilliam.

You can read Mr Hilliam's account of the process at the Trainz discussion forum.

There's an old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words, and when that picture is an icon it says a lot about your app - so make sure that message is the right one.

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Stephen Withers

Stephen Withers is one of Australia¹s most experienced IT journalists, having begun his career in the days of 8-bit 'microcomputers'. He covers the gamut from gadgets to enterprise systems. In previous lives he has been an academic, a systems programmer, an IT support manager, and an online services manager. Stephen holds an honours degree in Management Sciences and a PhD in Industrial and Business Studies.

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