Thanks so much for providing feedback on STRIP. One of the changes that we’ve been getting feedback on for the latest version of STRIP is the new icons. Before addressing the look and feel specifically, we’d like to explain a few of the most important factors behind these icon changes:
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Application design and styling across major platforms are trending towards “flatter” (non-skeumorphic) interfaces, with more muted tones. This is apparent everywhere from the latest iOS and Mac OS releases, to design trends on Windows 8, and many popular applications.
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The old icon set in STRIP was put together over a span of about 5 years, dating back to the original release in 2009. While we definitely had some great, and carefully chosen, icons in STRIP before, the collection had grown uncoordinated, inconstant, and unmanageable over time.
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We often received user requests for more modern icons that were much more difficult to fulfill, e.g. icons for crypto coins, site brands, credit card companies, etc. These new types of icons would have been particularly difficult to implement successfully in the old faux-photorealistic style.
The new STRIP icon set was specifically designed to our specifications to address these problems. They look more cohesive when running under operating systems with a modern UI, they all feature a common design theme and color palette, and they will be easier to extend to meet new and future requirements. As a result we really love the new icons, and feel strongly that they are a major step in the right direction for STRIP.
That said, reaction to design changes is deeply personal. What some people like and find tasteful, other’s don’t. What appears modern to one person may seem retro to another. Some pay particular attention to details and cohesion, while others disregard such aesthetics. As a result, it’s always very difficult to make this sort of big visual change to an application like STRIP. We did our best to run through an extended beta period with users, during which we collected feedback on the changes. We didn’t receive any strong negative comments, and since the public release we’ve have had positive feedback from several folks, too.
Sometimes we find ourselves growing to like design changes over time. For example, many people had a really hard time getting used to the new look of iOS 7, but now realize how much of an improvement it is when looking back at older versions. Would you be willing to give STRIP a few weeks of consistent use with the new icons set, to see how you feel about the changes once the shock of the change wears off?
Of course we’d continue to welcome further input about the design changes here.