Tips For Using Images On Your Website
Images are the concrete evidence that are used to backup words of text. Images help to make what you write more convincing. Several studies have shown that most people quickly believe a story when there is an accompanying image to the story. An image always leaves a stronger impression because the brain is drawn to objects it relates more with in real life than just words.
Using images on websites is however not as easy as many think it is. Images can mar or make your website. Many people don’t like to use images because they think it contributes little to SEO and eats a lot of space. You will see in this article, why this and other worries are unnecessary if images are used intelligently.
Appropriateness
A good images captures attention and conveys emotions. It can tell a story all on its own. An image can make a webpage really effective not only because of its quality but also because of how it fits into the context of the page. For example, using a black and white image on a website about say web hosting is not suitable but black and white images on an artistic site looks proper.
Technical Issues
Images used on the web today exist in 3 main formats, which are Jpeg, Gif and Png formats. Because we want the image size to be as small as possible, it is therefore imperative that the different formats are noted. For lesser colored images, Gifs are the best while for those with multiple colors, jpegs are more suitable. Moreover, jpeg images can be easily made smaller by compression. Many photo editing softwares nowadays like Adobe Photoshop have a “save for web” feature which compresses jpeg images efficiently. Gifs are effective as transparent overlays. Pngs while having higher quality and transparent overlays, are larger in size.
Aesthetics
Images that are effective have a focus. Except it is go generate a particular effect, fuzzy, vague or blurry images do not look professional. An image should not have too many elements on it at a time since this can distract the viewer from whatever message the image is passing.
There must be a balance of contrast and brightness to make the image stand out better. For example, if a lady in a red dress stands in front of a red painted shop, the lady might not stand out as the colors are too close. Contrast could help separate both colors. If the image you are using is black and white, low contrast makes the image seemed grayed out. The image should not be too dark or too bright.
On certain occasions, special effects can be added intentionally to the image to create a dramatic effect. Softwares have ready made filters and add-on modules that can transform an image at the click of a mouse. An image, button or icon can become more prominent on your site just by the addition of a shadow.
Using special effects is tricky, so it has to be used less frequently as it can take out the life in your image. Many websites that use it too much, have readers focusing more on images than what the text says. While it is a great trick to keep users longer on your website, it is good to use it sensibly. In some case, the image on your website might piss people off too.
Lines of Action
Every image has its own geometry that adds to the look and feel of a webpage. Imagine that every image tells a story. Images are like arrows or sign posts that directs your readers to parts of your page to focus on. For instance, an image of a person looking or gesturing to a certain direction on your website might cause viewers to look towards that direction as well. People see things in orderly geometric horizontal and vertical lines and the lines of action of your images need to be horizontal or vertical to capture their attention. Only if you site is based on design and creativity that this will not mater much.
Layout
How you place images on your website tells a lot to the readers. Dominant and large images tells readers that that is the place to look first and this type of image is actually necessary for every page. For each page, images are to be spread out evenly and placed near to relevant content. Spacing around images must be consistent and like words, everything needs to come together succinctly. Clustering pages with images may produce a negative effect on the readers eyes but running images close together with sufficient spacing and all sharing a common theme will guide the reader’s eyes to read through content clearer.
Conclusion
Images convey much more than web pages of text, and is crucial to passing across a message so readers understand better. However size and format are crucial to site bandwith. Extremely large images take longer to load and are not advised. Page elements can repel attention if used inappropriately, so using images the right away can be the difference between a successful business and a failing one.