IMAGES CAN MAKE OR BREAK A WEB PAGE: Using images to put the brake on a speedy click through

An image strategy can make
or break the usability of your web site 

Images can make or break a web page.    

Big companies know this and small businesses know this! You will seldom come across a web page without images or graphics.

But often it is very obvious that not much thought has gone into selecting the images that must communicate the company’s message. It lacks an overall strategy that integrates not only design elements (the relationship between text and images) but also the company’s brand strategy with the design approach.

Typically the small business owner will provide the text and the designer will put together the website.

Then at some point during the process, the topic of image comes up and one of a number of actions might follow:

• Best case scenario: A professional photographer is called in to document company products, people and installations

• Second-best case scenario: The business supplies its own images that might or might not be substandard quality or outdated or in appropriate and the handiwork of employees on site or whoever is in charge of marketing.

• Worst case scenario: The designer opts to purchase stock images to illustrate the website.

• Ultimate worst case scenario: The designer illegally downloads images of the Internet.

 I can already hear you say that this is all conjecture and that it shows my bias towards employing professional photographers like us. 

And you will be right.

But hear me out, I have support from good authority.

There are at least three aspects to take into account in developing an image strategy for a web site:

• the relationship between the text and the images
• where the images are placed and
• the type of images selected

Is your web site a yapper or a looker?

It seems we spend only about 10 to 20 seconds perusing a site before we click on the next one. Not much of a window of opportunity to capture a viewer’s attention.

Clearly large chunks of text will not improve retention rates. Ask yourself, how many words are we able to read and absorb in 10 to 20 seconds?  

And more importantly, how many words are we willing to read to find out what a web page is all about?

Well, simply not enough to convert the browser into a buyer as effectively as good images. A picture tells a thousand words, the saying goes.

Location, location, location

In fact, according to Jakob Nielsen, an expert on web page usability and partner in the Nielsen Norman Group of California, we don’t read web sites at all. We scan them and in ways very different from how we were taught to read at school. 

Studies by the Nielsen Norman Group on how our eyes move across the screen when viewing web pages, indicate that we generally do this in an F-shaped pattern - two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe. 

Therefore:

• the most important information must be contained in the first and second paragraphs (the two horizontal stripes of the F) and
• the vertical stripe on the left has to be used for subheads and bullet points with information-carrying words.

 Keeping this in mind it is clear that the placement of images also cannot happen randomly but should contribute to the overall usability of a website.

An image of substance

Also not all images are equal says the Nielsen Norman Group. Users seem to pay close attention to images that ‘contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to "jazz up" Web pages.’ 

Their studies have shown that purely decorative images are by and large ignored while images of products and real people (rather than stock photos and models) are considered important and people spend time examining them.

And the photographer makes three ...

Relating these findings to the four scenarios I discussed earlier, want to add another option.

Rather than treating the images on your web site as an incidental element, a purely decorative feature or as a design afterthought, include a professional photographer in the conceptualising and planning from the start.

Give us a call and let us help you develop an image strategy that will make your web site and which will put the brakes on viewers hurriedly clicking through.

Ps: 1 November 2013

This what Internet tool company, VIGO has to say on the topic in an articel, The Death of the Homepage:

Up the visuals

It’s no secret that our attention spans have waned. We’ve grown to love colorful (sic) visuals and catchy excerpts of words, so long as they remain short. When branding a homepage, it’s important to avoid using long, drawn out descriptions and to make sure the homepage visually represents the brand we want our company, product or service to convey. The homepage and internal pages should combine professionalism with beauty, which means using little content to say a lot and creating a layout that’s intuitive and easy on the eyes.