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