In one of my earlier posts, I talked about necessary elements of a great website, and I will repeat what I said then: A picture is worth a thousand words. The reason why images are so important, apart from the stories they tell in a few seconds, is that they communicate to people’s subconscious and emotions the second they lay their eyes on your website. Here are a few things to consider when choosing the images for your website.
Context
Given that images play an important role in visitors’ emotional experience, they will set the visitors’ entire mood the moment they visit your website. For that reason, it is very important that the images you choose for the website are context-relevant. The images need to be chosen based on the message and the story you’d like your website to tell. For some industries choosing the right images might be a tricky part, but there is always a way to align images, content and message.
Original photo
When working on a website for our client who specializes in newborn, maternity and cake smash photography, Mini Bee Photography, we’ve had an enjoyable task of structuring the website homepage and inner pages so that they display high res versions of their original photography to show off the client’s talents. These images reflect the client’s identity, and this is the main task when choosing the images for your website. They need to tell YOUR story, they need to BE you.
Use the images appropriately
When choosing the content-relevant images that tell your story, you need to make sure they are high-quality images as well. If your images have a good quality and are appropriately sized for displays, your website visitors will truly enjoy looking at them, which will improve their emotional experience. And remember how important it is to speak to visitors’ emotions!
Consistency
If you choose great looking, but not consistent images, they will send different messages to your visitors, which will create a confusion with them. So the next thing your images should have in common, apart from being original and high quality, they all need to be unified in terms of the message they send. And that’s exactly what all images on Mini Bee Photography’s website do. They are all warm, maternal and tell a story of matrimony, family and childhood.
Tell a story
Storytelling is becoming increasingly important in web design nowadays. You know your audience, you know what they are looking for, so tell them a story that they can relate to. Use the content and words to tell your story. And use the colour, whitespace, typography, texture, and images to powerfully express your story without words.
Summary
Choosing and using the right images for your website is probably one of the most creative tasks of the process. You do not have to be an expert in order to see that a certain image is the right choice for your business. And if you cannot feel that, you can follow the above points and use them as a kind of a checkbox. If your images are high quality, give a full view of your business and send the right messages to your audience, you are good to go!
