The importance of responsible juxtapositioning

I want you to look at this screenshot as you would normally look at a webpage and tell me what you look at first:

Do you, as I did, look at the image first then let your eye travel up to the headline? How many people don’t look at the headline? You could easily think this chap is Jon Venables – when the entire point of the article is to say he isn’t.

Words are important but visually they’re not as strong as a photo or image on the page.

It’s an obvious choice to put these two photos together but it doesn’t tell the user what the story is. In fact, it actually leads the user to an assumption that is completely wrong.

I think I would have kept the two images apart and had the image of David Calvert first, then further down the page had the image of Jon Venables. Would you place them differently? I’d be interested to think if you think I’m being over-sensitive or I’m right to be on my high horse on this one.

One Response to “The importance of responsible juxtapositioning”

1. How do you name a footballer at the centre of an injunction row without printing their name? | Crocstar Media says:

   May 23, 2011 at 5:10 pm

   [...] I’ve also blogged about the importance of responsible juxtapositioning. [...]