Icons are widely used in mobile applications as visual displays that can assist the acquisition and understanding of information. An icon creates better visual perception with the ability to communicate meaning. Icon design is an approach of designing a graphic icon that can express a specific meaning. Icon design principles and elements are considered as major factors for mobile user interface that would lead to higher icon usability and acceptance of mobile applications. The study is undertaken to conduct a systematic review of published scientific literature on icon design elements for mobile applications. The chosen articles were published between 2014 and 2019, with full text provided and written in the English language. The electronic databases used were Google Scholar, Scopus, ProQuest, and Research Gate. Other sources include secondary data through books and web pages. The search terms used were "mobile icon design", "mobile icon design principle", "mobile icon design element"and "apps icon design". The outcomes of this paper are a comparative study and proposed elements for icon design that will contribute to the field of icon design for mobile application. The proposed elements for icon design consist of recognizable, colour, simple, semantics, familiarity, shape, aesthetic, consistency, uniqueness and concreteness. These proposed elements for icon design can assist designers and researchers in designing icons for mobile application that would improve user experience by enhancing the meaning of icons to users. � Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.