Winners of the Most Usable Icon Event Are Here!

from Stardock Forums

Ok, we're nearly a week late, but better late than never right?  After a grueling round of user voting, and some tough decisions for our judges from Neowin, BetaNews, DeviantArt, Microangelo and WinCustomize, we have our icon winners!  The winners came right down to the wire, the the top seven icon sets all within 10 points of each other.  What this meant was it was anyone's game right up until the very last judge.  Whoever our last judge picked as their #1 choice, could very well have won the event.  This was why we waited so long to post the results, because that final vote cast could completely change who won.

As I've said several times, these are some of the best icons we've ever seen.  The level of quality and detail in many of them was simply staggering.

And remember, while we've done Most Original and Most Usable, the biggest icon event is still to come: Best Overall Icon Package.  This event will focus on not just usability, or originality, but on finding the best overall icon package submitted to the contest.  This is where some of the big prizes start to come out.

Today's winners account for the next $350 in prize money, not to mention the stack of software and subscriptions.   Congrats to all of our winners!  Expect the Most Original Icon Package winners to be announced on Friday.

Slicer by kirozeng
Faraway Dream by Maxdison
Aqualix by Dexter2005
Honorable
Mention		 Aluminium Icon by RickyXu
36,541 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Congratulations to all the medal winners, i know the voting was tough on the judges, but i think for useabilty they were right on.   
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Congratulations to all the winners! Excellent icons all around!     
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
hard to believe quality sets like FROIS, The Preface and Rounder end up with nothing...dont get me wrong, folks, the winners all deserve to win, congratulation to them, but i just like the said 3 sets more n seeing them being "medal-less", it's somewhat a bad feeling..
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Like I said, the results were EXTREMELY close, with most icons coming within a few points of the gold medal winner.  The winners could have easily been any of the finalists, if a single judge had voted differently at any point.

Unfortunately, we can't give prizes to everyone, and it's especially painful when the finalists were all so high-quality.

 

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

The other thing to remember: The event was MOST USABLE icons. NOT "best overall" icons.

The best overall icon event is still to come. The votes were extremely close.

As good as some of these icons are, not all of them are equally usable in the opinions of judges. How definable are they when they're 16x16? How easy tell one icon from another? That sort of thing.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Fantastic job, Artists!

Congratulations are in order. Well done.   
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Congratulation to all.

I hope the judges simply closed their eyes and chose.

They were all great. There are no loser here
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
bluewhale n Xcons were submitted late, their presence MIGHT have influence on the overall voting n judging, this is really an ip competition to remember...btw, i m wondering how the BEST ip winners will be decided, is it the same procedure like most usable ip n most original ip..the public vote n decide the top10, then the judges select the winner from the top10, or is it another different system??
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Congrats to all. There were so many great packs to choose from here. Good picks by the judges. Good stuff.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
congratulations...slicer was my top bet!
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
I very much agree on most usable; on a 17 inch CRT with 1280 x 1024 Resolution, the icons are still visible even without my eyewear.

Congratulation also to the Organizers!!! It's not easy puting up an event on the net.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Simply stunning icon packages!!

Very well done to all the prize winners! Each and every one of them is very much deserved :cool: