Using professional icons in your application or website can bring a modern and aesthetically pleasing appearance to your product or service. This will not only help you to attract potential customers but also give you that "edge" you need to stand out from your competitors. In an internet age, it's important that your interface looks professional or your potential buyer might move on without really giving your product a chance to prove itself.
Besides a professional appearance, relevant XP style icons can greatly increase the usability of any software application or website. Icons are just one of the many communication tools you have to guide a user. With good free icons few and far between, professional icon collections are a cost effective investment and can be purchased for just around $100.00.
For an example check out http://www.VirtualLNK.com/icons.asp
Here are some of the groups that would benefit from using professional XP style icons:
Software Developers
Like I said before, your user interface is your user's "first impression". Your program must look professional if it's going to sell, making the quality of your interface one of your most powerful and important marketing tools. A program with a bad interface will appear of poor quality no matter how good the functionality is.
Relevant images simplify the user experience and create a sense of comfort for the user by providing them with images that they are already familiar with or can easily identify. Making your program easy to understand and pleasing to the eye can increase sales as well as improve your return customer base.
Making use of free or badly designed icons can lead to numerous headaches along with possible licensing issues when icon designers have found their "not so free" icons are being posted on free sites. With professional icons being so affordable, it's best to leave icon design up to the professionals.
Web Designers
With so many internet based businesses, your website can make or break the success of your company. Web designers are faced with the challenge of building a website that is both highly useable and visually appealing. With the right icon collection, it's easy to find common themes that will be readily identifiable by website users. Icons can ease the task of creating navigation and toolbar buttons, and most of all give a unique "personality" to your site.
XP style icons are highly stimulating with their beautiful gradients and 3D appearance. A nicer website means more return visitors and more sales. Professional icons can help your website stand out from the thousands of others selling similar products and services.
Marketing and Documentation Professionals
Marketing and Documentation Professionals can make use of XP style icons in their company brochures, documentation, multimedia presentations, and other marketing materials. Icons can easily spruce up boring text and turn a once simple piece into a colorful and professional looking document. Having unique, professional looking documentation can give you a competitive edge in the eyes of a potential customer.
Finding Quality Icons
So why not look for free icons? Well, if you are one of the many people who have spent countless hours searching all over the internet for good icons, you might already be familiar with a few of these reasons:
They don't show up well or sometimes not at all.
They are targeted for different operating systems (Mac, BeOS, Beta XP, etc.).
They don't match in style, color, and are generally inconsistent.
They don't look professional.
It's hard to find useful icons that match common functions found in most programs.
Sites often contain viruses and require active-x controls to be installed.
Making professional icons requires expensive tools and true artistic talent, so finding quality ones is not easy; that's why VirtualLNK has made the process of finding the collections you need as painless as possible.
.NET Developer and avid writer from Orlando, Florida
efficient cleaning crew Northbrook ..When you own a small business, time is money. And... Read More
We've all seen the ads on TV for Netzero 3G.... Read More
Learning how to program software seems like a daunting task... Read More
SyncUp, a file synchronizer is designed to assist the home... Read More
Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a combination of enterprise... Read More
As you probably know, when Microsoft purchased Great Plains Software... Read More
COMMAND LINE FUNCTIONA powerful command line script processor has been... Read More
Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft Business Solutions.The whole... Read More
There are many commands that are used in linux on... Read More
Are you ready? SQL Server 2005, the next-generation data management... Read More
Looking at all the ads which promise to get rid... Read More
If there still are few unprotected computers left, I haven't... Read More
Background: For many organizations like ours, the interim target of... Read More
Shareware has been fighting the stigma of being misunderstood for... Read More
Just the thought of a duel-boot scares many people away,... Read More
If you use Microsoft Outlook (or similar applications) for e-mailing,... Read More
It could just be me, but my experiences with document... Read More
In a previous article, I wrote about OpenOffice... Read More
The cornerstone of successful automated office systems is the ability... Read More
If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it for... Read More
IBM Lotus Notes with Domino email server is traditional document... Read More
Enabling Chinese input is quick and easy, there are only... Read More
Configuring PPP PAP AuthenticationNow we know how the ISDN link... Read More
MSN messenger is a pretty cool invention. I mean I'm... Read More
If your company has regional and worldwide operations, you might... Read More
cleaning lady near Wilmette ..A wiki is an editable text-based website. But you don't... Read More
Since technology changes so quickly, it is hard to begin... Read More
I love new technology. I am still ready to wait... Read More
Handling character strings in Java is supported through two final... Read More
Just the thought of a duel-boot scares many people away,... Read More
Many Webmasters have never bothered to view their website's server... Read More
User interfaces and accessibility are some of the most important... Read More
In this small article we will be looking at the... Read More
People often ask me: What image file formats will Photoshop... Read More
1. Replace Dexterity cursor with SQL Stored Procedure Dexterity... Read More
This is intermediate level SQL scripting article for DB Administrator,... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics... Read More
When my daughter was getting into AOL instant messaging (AIM)... Read More
Trying to figure out a stream in banning one email... Read More
Spyware is software or hardware installed on a computer without... Read More
Passwords protect your most sensitive personal, financial and business information.... Read More
If you copy something from a Web site or elsewhere...... Read More
Security flaws have long plagued Internet Explorer (IE), the market-dominating... Read More
Microsoft CRM has built-in conversion tool, however you should probably... Read More
Microsoft CRM is CRM application, maintained and supported by Microsoft... Read More
And kill the best layout software in the process of... Read More
You've finally created databases that you can actually use to... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains was purchased from Great Plains... Read More
Ad-Aware and Spybot are probably the two most well known... Read More
If you company is small or mid-size special products or... Read More
Software |