3 Social Media Icon Design Styles that Add Flavor to Your Website
Site visitors make snap judgments about you within seconds of loading your pages. They're likely to notice what your brand is all about, what your website's niche is and even what your take on your industry's hottest topics are. But the biggest things that will stand out are the visuals – your site's design, your logo and the images you use as illustrations and navigation cues.
Humans process imagery far more efficiently than text. In today's web browsing culture of "bounce in, bounce out," you've only got so many milliseconds to grab people's attention and help them feel that they've arrived somewhere worth staying. Every aspect of your website’s design should match your brand and the emotional response you want to evoke in your readers and customers. This principle applies to everything from your header and sidebar widgets all the way to your social media icons and the background patterns you use.
There are so many icons available that website owners often just opt for haphazardly, but it’s worth putting some thought into getting them right. Your blog and your social media profiles are key parts of the ecosystem that is your brand, and the icons you place on every page are an important opportunities to convey your brand's flavor.
1. Dynamic Timeliness
If your brand is meant to project fun and creativity, you may want to switch your icons according to season, topic or a timely theme. Consider these examples:
-
Put up Christmas-themed icons in December.
-
Switch them to Easter-related ones in March.
-
Run fireworks in July
-
Sand castles in August
-
Textbooks in September
-
Fall foliage in October
These are just a few examples to get you started. There is so much more you can do if you think creatively.
Users will love seeing something new every time they land on your homepage. They may even visit the site just to see what icons you have up today, like people do with the ever-dynamic Google Doodle series. By keeping things fresh, you lower the chances that repeat visitors will tune out your icons, and you give them a little something extra to enjoy.
2. Edgy Flatness
To project a trendy, super-contemporary brand image, choose flat social media icons. Those puffy, photorealistic icons (called "skeuomorphism" style) that were once ubiquitous have now gone out of fashion and been replaced by simple and clear ones.
The latest operating system designs by leading companies like Microsoft and Apple leverage the flat (or "metro") style of design, and other tech brands have followed suit.
The flat design trend makes a lot of sense. Back when computer monitors and mobile device displays were first becoming capable of photo-realistic representation, interface designers were keen to showcase the literal connections between the symbolism on screen and the actions represented. But now users are more sophisticated, and we know that a folder icon is meant to be a virtual representation of a folder, for example. So when we allow symbols to be symbols, the beauty of the shapes themselves is what stands out.
3. Subdued Calm
For bloggers who want their content to speak louder than their design, subtle monochrome and embossed icons are excellent choices.
These are noticeable and recognizable without detracting from page content or distracting readers. If your content is serious and your posts are longer than the average, you can project a distinguished image with these icons. The embossed effect, with its subtly implied sense of depth, allows you to use color schemes that have limited contrast. What's more, when the icons look like they can be touched, you're using the visual language as a kind of call to action, asking site visitors to click through.
Visual Coherence for Alluring Publications
Consistent branding is crucial for creating an immersive world with your publication that visitors want to come back to again and again. Every single element of your site's interface either supports or detracts from that image, and social media icons are no exception.
So before you download the first icon set you find on Google, spend some time researching icons and choose the ones that best match your branding. Your site will become stickier, and you're likely to gain more followers on your social channels as well.