Hi all,
So, I am aware that I tend to discuss strategy, working with colleagues, and other big ideas in these emails. But this time, I want to dive right into the weeds of our day-to-day work and discuss imagery.
The way most of us (myself included at times) use imagery online is infuriating. If a page looks a little bland, we shove in a pointless image because we cannot think of anything better to do.
Once upon a time, this was stock images of people shaking hands. These days we have all transitioned to using dubiously drawn illustrations of people in “interesting” poses (yes, I am using those quotes ironically).
These images serve zero purposes and tend to do more harm than good by slowing down page performance and damaging our search engine rankings and user experience.
Not that all images are wrong. Of course not. However, our use of imagery needs to be as considered as any other element we add to a web page.
To my mind, images must perform one of three roles to justify their inclusion on a page.
Imagery as content
Their most important use should be to communicate or reinforce information found in surrounding copy. So, for example, if you are writing about an app, showing a screenshot of that app would be an appropriate use of imagery.
Imagery as direction
The second use of imagery should be to draw attention to important content. That means the imagery needs to be designed for that purpose, with some image aspect used to direct attention. That might be blatant, like a person looking at the content. Alternatively, it could be subtle such as elements in the image flowing in the direction of the content.
Imagery to elicit emotion
The final role of imagery is to elicit emotion. Emotion is essential to delight users, challenge them or encourage them to act. Whatever the emotion you are trying to elicit, imagery can be a powerful tool in your arsenal, but only if you use the right image.
So much of the imagery we use is bland to the point of being invisible. Other times we select imagery that does not elicit the emotion we hope for. That is why it is essential to test our designs’ aesthetics using a semantic differential survey.
So the next time you go to add an image to a webpage, join me and ask yourself why. Are you just using that image to “spice up the page,” or does it play a fundamental role? If it is the former, consider adding interest using layout, typography, color, or style instead. These approaches will achieve the same thing without the associated performance hit.
