Reinforcing Omnichannel Icons: How to Rescale, Reuse and Refresh Your Icon Design for Cross-Channel Success

Icons act as more than a decorative design component, instead encouraging action to help aid the user experience.

With the nature of the web today meaning websites must include seamless functionality and modern design to keep the attention of users, it’s never been so important to up your omnichannel strategy.

With omnichannel marketing increasing sales by 287%, brands should be utilising multiple platforms to reach their target audience in different ways. From your website and social media channels to offline marketing and email, companies need to find new ways to get their message across and connect with their audience.

By creating effective icons that aid the user experience and portray your branding, you can implement these across different channels to create a consistent experience that reaches your audience through multiple touchpoints.

In this article, we discuss why your omnichannel icons are important and what power they can hold for your brand image. We’ll then explore how you can rescale, reuse, and refresh your designs to make sure they look just as great on different screen sizes and resolutions—keeping your content looking great wherever it may be viewed.

Why You Should Be Using Omnichannel Icons

Building an omnichannel experience means creating design components that can be used across platforms to create a consistent user experience that closely reflects your brand personality.

Icons are a key component of modern web design, using visuals that portray specific information through non-written communication. With the ability to convey meaning quickly and easily, they are a great way to break up a page and minimise the amount of text needed.

We all come across many icons in our day-to-day lives, recognising their meaning without having to think twice. Whether it’s the hamburger menu icon that leads you to a website navigation bar, the letter icon that opens a new email draft, or a person icon that takes you to your account, a familiar icon can help users find what they are looking for in an instant.

By designing icons that align with your branding while maintaining clarity, they can be integrated into your creatives for a unique style element that provides a useful purpose.

Rescale: Icons To Suit All Platforms

When designing icons for omnichannel purposes, one of the biggest considerations to take into account is the scalability. The icons should be designed in a way that adapts to the size of the screen, working well on desktops, tablets, and mobiles. As well as online, the icons can also be used on offline marketing, being incorporated into printed materials or signage.

The below example shows how a website has been adapted to suit mobile and desktop screen sizes. The mobile version uses a scrollable feature whereas the desktop version has more space to fit larger versions of the same icon.

WordPress icons are often used on websites as they scale smoothly between devices and provide a consistent experience, regardless of the screen size.

On mobile devices, screen size provides more obstacles for designers as there is less space to work with. Icons need to be small enough to not obstruct the content while large enough to be clickable. If more detailed icons have been created, they may need to be simplified for mobile devices to avoid them losing their clarity. 

For example, the classic hamburger menu icon is an important feature of a website, allowing users to easily navigate. On mobiles, the width of the icon should be about 20-25% of the total screen width, ensuring it is noticeable and easy to click. When it comes to larger devices such as PCs and laptops, the icon will likely be around the same size, not needing to scale up in comparison to on smaller devices.

To maintain high resolution across different platforms, creating different icons for different screens is necessary. This will ensure that the icon displays correctly on different displays and retinas. Another option is to create scalable vector-based icons which adapt to the device and provide a clear icon every time.

Reuse: Icons That Enforce Brand Consistency

Once the icons have been designed and perfected for different screen sizes and resolutions, they can be implemented into an omnichannel strategy. By using the same brand icons across multiple platforms, the visual identity of the brand is strengthened and becomes easily recognisable to consumers. 

Icons which can be used across your website, online banners, social media channels, and email marketing campaigns mean you are creating a consistent style that users can look out for when interacting with your content.

As well as online, the same icon style can be implemented into physical materials. For example, arrows can be used on outdoor advertising to guide passers-by to your store, or a phone icon can be used on a poster to encourage viewers to give you a call.

The example below shows some TFL stickers which are used within their trains, tubes, and buses. The recognisable logo icon is used to show authority and the priority seat icons are used to show who is eligible. By using easily recognisable icons as visual communication, the message can be understood by all nationalities.

Refresh: Icons That Stand The Test Of Time

As design trends evolve, your brand should be adapting to the modern online environment. Web design and online marketing trends are forever changing as the user experience becomes more sleek and style preferences change. By failing to stay on top of your branding, it can be easy to become outdated and dampen your brand image.

As of recent, minimalism has blown up and many leading websites have adopted a simple yet powerful aesthetic. Gone are the days of bold colour combinations and flashy visuals, with brands instead opting for a clean style that cuts out any unnecessary design or text to provide an easy user journey.

When it comes to icons, the design should align with the rest of the website branding. Nowadays, simplicity is in trend and icons tend to follow the minimalistic style without unnecessary detail. 

Less has also shown to be more when it comes to the use of colour. Icons tend to use a singular flat colour that is easy to see, remaining understandable without the need for finer details. 

Back in 2015 when the rise in 3D printing took off, brands jumped on the trend with 3D designs that utilised shadowing and gradient colouring. If this approach was used by a brand nowadays, it would appear outdated and have a potential impact on the brand reputation.

An example of this is Instagram. The logo has significantly evolved over time to reflect the nature of the app and the preferences of the user base. The original design features a retro camera that suited the quirky and nostalgic feel of the platform in its early days. Nowadays, the logo is more in line with the contemporary and vibrant nature of the app.

The Future Of Omnichannel Icon Design

Maintaining consistency through omnichannel icons not only creates a smooth user experience, but helps to cement your brand identity. By designing clear and useful icons that are easily recognisable to your audience, they can be used on all platforms to guide users through the funnel and create a seamless process.

Once the icons have been created and rescaled to suit different screen sizes, they can be continually incorporated into new web pages or marketing materials, both online and offline. Creating an integrated user experience will not only increase your reach as a brand, but help to create recognisable branding that can be spotted in a flash.

With design trends forever evolving, it is important to make sure your business evolves with them. Staying aligned with your audience and new technologies will ensure your brand image remains relevant and attractive to your target audience, establishing your position as a key player in the market.