Designing some app interfaces - standard ios icons, or own design?

bamme

Senior Member
Hi all, so i am literally jumping on board my friends idea for an app, and helping him out with my knowledge of design, i have little experience in comparison to web design though, so would like to ask some advice
The app design itself features some of it's own original icons, to represent different 'areas'/functions of the app. These can't really be represented by standardised icons because they're pretty specific - it's a fitness app, and has areas like "workouts" etc.
BUT .. the app also has functions like "share" or "save" as well as nav buttons and "sync.
Do you guys think, for these generic functions, i should use standard iphone ios7 icons?
Bearing in mind, 1) there will also be an android version so in this case separate icons would need creating for that, and 2) im not 100% sure if the standard ios7 style icons will "suit" the unique icons that represent the app's main functions.
What would you guys do?
 
Pretty sure both android and iOS have 'design guidelines' which include things like 'standard' icons, although I don't have much experience of this area.... Sean might though, I'm sure he's worked on an app or two.
 
I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but I think you want to know about the use of icons in app designs. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if you mean to make an exact copy of the buttons or just use the same icons or shapes for your app.
So you can basically use any icon you want when it comes to either Android or Apple iOS. I think the answer to this question is literally as simple as do the icons look good when they're used together? If, as you mention, they look odd, then make your own. There are plenty of variations on icon designs for those type of action buttons.
Why don't you put up some of the screens and we can take a proper look. There's not really much else I can add to this conversation until I see what we're dealing with.
 
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