How to design a good logo?

There are many ways to design a good logo, but we are sharing some important points which will be helpful in designing logos.
First let understand what is logo?

In simple terms logo identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark and icon. 
“Justcreative.com”

1. Start with design brief & research?

After getting the brief by preparing questionnaire or interview with client always start with research.
- Get the full information about the companies’ history.
- Understand the companies name and type of product they are producing.
- What is their mission and vision?
- Who are the competitors of the company?
- What is their current market position?
- What is the current trend in the market related to design?
- Always ask the constraints to the client related to color because some clients have their establish color in the market.
- Know each and every detail which is required to design a good logo.

The benefit of the research is that you will get clear picture what is the expectation of client also it will help in designing the appropriate logo design according to market and competitor.

2. Sketch

Well it will be great if anyone is following a design process but can move ahead to the Sketch part because it is one of the important part in it. Start conceptualizing the ideas on paper before moving to the computer because once you will put all the thoughts on the paper then it will be easy to choose the few and finalize concepts for the digital designing process.
    

3. Choose the right Color

Always try to get the right color for the logo because different color has different meanings, communicate ideas and it affects organization/product image in the market. Also keep in mind that your logo should also function in gray-scale in worst situation.
     

4. Keep logo simple

While designing logo try to keep it simple because human mind scan & remember simple things easier and longer. As you can see flat design is a best example for it they have reduced the clutterness and removed the unwanted elements in the design. Same logic works in the logo design also. A simple logo is always memorable.
  

5. Logo should be versatile

Logo should be versatile because it is used in different places and in different collateral so it should work across variety of medium and application.

6. Logo should be unique

Logo should be unique in that way that it should stand out in the crowd and the market. For example apple logo without byte has no meaning it is that byte which makes it unique.

7. Logo should be scalable

Logo should be scalable for that always start making designing in vector format because it is always scalable. Logo must be scalable and effective in inch sizes. 

8. Better to have your handmade font for logo

It will be great if you made custom typeface/font for logo because if you are going with available fonts in the market then it will not be unique more once it is discovered by other people. So always try to make custom handmade fonts.
   

9. Learn from other’s logo success

Always look in to other works and learn from their successful logo story. Thousands of great successful logo case studies are available online read it to understand their process and their thinking what techniques they used to make a good logo.

10. Learn the software

Well if you are a graphic designer then it is expected that knows that software which is required for logo designing if not then start learning software from today itself. It hardly takes a month to mastering it. Illustrator and Coraldraw are the main software which is used by most of the designer and lots of tutorials are available online. But always keep in mind with brainstorming or idea jumping on the software is not going to help you.

Author: Shivin Mittal ( @MittalShivin)

Hollow Icon vs. Solid Icon Which Is More Friendly for Recognizing

In UI design, what scenario should hollow icons and solid icons be applied to? Some believe that the hollow icons are visually more complex than the solid icons, while the solid icons are in fact more recognizable.

The opinions of designers on this topic varies. Some designers think that the hollow icons is made by lines, as a result of which, they are more difficult to recognize. However, they gives users a feeling of ease and exquisiteness. Others deem that the recognizability has nothing to do with this topic, but depends on the shape, color and other factors of the icon.

1. The function of icons.

First, this topic focuses on a specific type of icons: functional icon. Let’s take a look at the basic functions of this type of icons.

Functional icons are common in life, usually seen in the airport, stations, hotels, shopping malls and other large public places, providing guidance to people, as shown below:

In UI design, icons are one of the most common elements. The use of the icon originated in the Macintosh 1.0, even in the earlier Xerox graphical interface began. They are often given functions like action, description and so on.

Since the release of the smart phone system so far, the style of graphical interface has completed the transformation from the material design to the flat design evolution. With the introduction of ios7, almost all of the icons in Apps are becoming more and more flat and slim. The reason of it is that the over-eye-catching icons usually reduce the readability of the contents.

In general, the most basic function of the icons is to convey the information quickly.

In today's design work, the matching of icons and texts has reached a point of obsession. In fact, it is enough to express some abstract concepts with text. Putting an icon aside actually helps nothing about making users build connections between the icon and its function.

Nevertheless, icons are still relatively important. The function of icons is far more than “telling users the meaning on the first sight”. In addition, there are also many important features like immediate locating, content layer distinguishing and interface rhythm increasing.

Take a prototype example on Mockplus for example, if you just see the icons without the texts, the meaning of them is quite obscure. However, the functions of icons are more than that. The icons in the prototype is solid. The icons and the text together form a unity, in which the icons plays a role of alignment. If you remove the icons, the information in the list will be indistinguishable and there will be a visual confusion. Users will face more difficulty when focusing on the options on a line.

2. Are solid icons more recognizable?

Given that you were summoned by the call of nature and rushed into the big mall to find the rest room. Solid icons or hollow icons? Which can be recognized more quickly?

Solid icons are indeed more recognizable in the perspective of visual attraction. The following picture shows the influence of the elements that are attractive to the human eye (sorted from left to right):

Hollow icons attract the eye by their shapes while the solid ones do the same by their color. As a result, hollow icons are more difficult to recognize.

As early as the iOS7 system was introduced, there have been some discussion about this topic. Curt Arledge, an experienced designer who graduated from Viget, wrote an APP specifically, and did 1260 recognition tests for solid and hollow icons [1], look at the test results:

The results found that the difference of the speed of recognizing these two types of icons is just 0.1 seconds.

In the first group, the solid icons won. These icons are derived from life, the icons kept their original meanings. The recognition speed depends on how much the color and shape attract the eyes. So the solid icons are easier to recognize.

It is worth noting that the three hollow icons are more recognizable in the second group.

These three icons are abstracted from subjects in real life, among which the speech bubble does not exists at all. Designers create this icon in the graphical interface and endow it with a meaning; The forms of garbage bin and keys are various in life, so the icons of them are abstract summaries of them. In this case, the shape of the icons allows users to quickly identify the meaning of the icons, while the colors has become a factor of interference.

So, for icons expressing the same meaning of the original subjects, solid icons are more recognizable. For icons that endowed with abstract meanings, hollow icons are better.

What is logo?

In simple terms logo identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark and icon.

“Justcreative.com”

Logo is the identity of the business which is memorable and recognizable it should not describe what company does. There are three basic types of logos:

1. Iconic/symbolic

2.Logo type/Word mark

3. Combination Marks

1. Iconic/symbol 

In iconic and symbol such imagery is used which convey abstract representation of the company. For example : Apple

2. Logotype/Word mark  

In common language we can say that company name is used in text format but in stylish way or bold way. Sometimes designer play with negative or positive area with in font to convey the nature of the business. For Ex: Fedex

One can see the forward arrow in the FedEx logo which conveys their type of business.

3. Combination Marks 

It is combination of text and symbol and icon which represent your company or organization. Symbol includes additional value to your logo by placing it with text. For ex: Domino’s Pizza

Next article: How to design a good logo

References: logodesignsource.com


Author: Shivin Mittal ( @MittalShivin )

What is Usability Testing

“Usability testing is a technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by testing it on real users.” Lets understand it in simple language, “It is a way or method by which we test our product with real end users and find out problems, insights, inferences to improve our product design.”

Usability Testing is different from functionality testing. In functionality testing it is being tested-“That functionality is working or not properly”, but in Usability Testing we test that a real user is able to use it or not.

Objectives

• Validate how well the design worked
• Look for opportunities to improve the design
• Look for insights into user experience (UX)

The Purpose of Usability Testing is "Feedback"

• Feedback is fundamental to survival.
• Goal-Directed behavior depends on feedback.
• Dynamic systems use feedback to adapt.
• Usability Testing enables design improvements/corrections.

Usability Testing of  What?

Usability Testing can evaluate any dimension of a UI design.

Depending on the prototype’s phase and its needs, Usability Testing can evaluate:

Types of Usability Testing

Don’t wait until the end. Find usability problems throughout the

design process.

• Formative testing
  
  Formative Usability Testing happens at the start of the design phase, testing with paper-prototypes, wireframes, visual designs. Do this to discover insights and shape the design direction.

• Summative testing
  Summative Usability Testing happens with actual working prototypes. Do this to determine metrics (time on task, success rates), which you would then compare test results from improved versions against.

Why 'Early Prototype Testing' is required

Early prototypes of any application includes below mentioned things

• Paper prototypes
• Low fidelity wireframes
• Visual design

This graph represent the 'Resistance to change design' vs. 'Efforts invested'. When we move in application development cycle from 'Hand sketches' to 'wireframes' and so on, the efforts in iterating design gets increase. It is recommended to conduct Usability testing from early prototypes.

Evaluating Early Prototypes - Testing Methods

In the upcoming articles we will be looking each testing method in detail. 

Quiz - Infographics basics

What is Infographics? Iconic Representation (Part 2)

In the previous article (Infographics Part 1) we have seen some interesting facts about BRAIN like,

1. 50% of human brain is involved in Visual Processing
2. 70% of all your sensory receptors are in your eyes.
3. we can get the sense of a Visual scene in less than 1/10 of a second.
4. and 65% of population is Visual Learners.


If we consider these facts the Basic Infographic starts with ‘Better data visualization’ and ‘Iconic Representation’.

Iconic Representation

Iconic representation is the use of pictorial images to make actions, objects, and concepts in a display which is easier
–to find
–to recognize
–to learn
–to remember
 

Efficient way of presenting data

Pictures are generally more easily recognized and recalled than words, although memory for pictures and words together is superior to memory for words alone or pictures alone.

  
 

Benefits of Iconic Representation

1. Better identification (like company logo)

 


 
2. Serves as a space efficient alternative to text (road signs)

 


 
3. Icons convey message properly where language is a constrain




In next article we will be looking at ‘Picture Superiority Effect’ and some more facts about infographics.

Chapter 1: Infographics Part 1 >>