On the correlation between Google Play Store application icons and downloads

Abstract Icons are the first visual element users encounter when searching for applications in online store. Icons with eye-catching features can make an app stand out in user searches, playing a crucial role in attracting user attention and influencing selection. This increases the likelihood of downloads, which can expand the user base, improve revenue, and enhance engagement, contributing to the application’s overall success. However, the majority of research focused on evaluating appeal of apps through application icons is empirical in nature and may lack comprehensive data analytical approaches. While empirical research holds its significance, it may still be limited by the size of the dataset analyzed and could also be subjective. This proposed research presents a novel data-analytical methodology to analyze a large dataset of application icons from Google Play to determine their influence on downloads. It clusters the icons using three different techniques: $K$-means clustering with two distinct feature vectors and agglomerative clustering, extracting various visual features from the clusters that are strongly correlated with application installs. Subsequently, validation of results has revealed that factors of varied colors, the dominance of white or black colors, text, and exposure in the icons can be linked to downloads.