I wasn’t referring specifically to the iWork apps. They are all in rounded squares now, like Tahoe won’t even allow apps to not be in a rounded square. Folder, stack, Launchpad, or Dock doesn’t matter, it was still easier to find what you were looking for when all icons were allowed to be their own shape and before this weird trend of abstraction in icons.
I will say that VLC, which isn’t in a rounded square is one of the most recognizable icon in my launchpad. But also, it’s a literal traffic cone. And I never hunt for it because I remember its name.
My launchpad in general is like 60% rounded squares and 40% whatever the developer wanted to do. Patchwork, gemini2, AmorphusDiskMark, HandBrake, Ryujinx, blackmagic disk speed test, supernote partner, vintage story etc. It’s more frustrating to me how inconsistent the iconography is since I never use the icons to figure out what I want to open and wildly different looking icons don’t look well in the dock. Spotlight search (or specifically Raycast) is what I use to open apps 95% of the time, so I might be a bit outside the norm. If I had to scroll through the 8 pages of my launchpad apps every time I wanted to open an app, I’d just throw my computer out the window.
I figured that at this point, app icon design is like website favicon design. Superfluous and unreliable for remembering what it belongs to considering designs change so often.
I wasn’t referring specifically to the iWork apps. They are all in rounded squares now, like Tahoe won’t even allow apps to not be in a rounded square. Folder, stack, Launchpad, or Dock doesn’t matter, it was still easier to find what you were looking for when all icons were allowed to be their own shape and before this weird trend of abstraction in icons.
I will say that VLC, which isn’t in a rounded square is one of the most recognizable icon in my launchpad. But also, it’s a literal traffic cone. And I never hunt for it because I remember its name.
My launchpad in general is like 60% rounded squares and 40% whatever the developer wanted to do. Patchwork, gemini2, AmorphusDiskMark, HandBrake, Ryujinx, blackmagic disk speed test, supernote partner, vintage story etc. It’s more frustrating to me how inconsistent the iconography is since I never use the icons to figure out what I want to open and wildly different looking icons don’t look well in the dock. Spotlight search (or specifically Raycast) is what I use to open apps 95% of the time, so I might be a bit outside the norm. If I had to scroll through the 8 pages of my launchpad apps every time I wanted to open an app, I’d just throw my computer out the window.
I figured that at this point, app icon design is like website favicon design. Superfluous and unreliable for remembering what it belongs to considering designs change so often.