We love pictures. Photos. Images. They capture expressions lost in movement and help fix memories and feelings forever. If you’re a website owner, you’ll already know that your users love pictures.

Using images on your website can do a number of jobs:
• Show your products
• Help make a point
• Grab attention.

But you can’t just use any old snap. Oh no. Nobody likes blurred outlines or out-of-focus faces. Your picture has to be appropriately framed, well lit, sharp. Your picture has to get across what you’re trying to say. And quickly.

Say you sell phones. You need your user to visualise a 3D object from flat pictures – that’s quite a job. Make it easy by providing lots of images from different angles. Answer questions before they’re asked:
• How big is the phone? Show someone holding it to their ear
• What does the screen look like? Use a close-up image of the screen
• Where are the features located? Include a diagram.

Images of products sold online should be taken by a professional photographer. The cost is easily worth it for the impact it will have with users.

What if you’re not selling a product but a service?

This is a situation where you might consider using stock imagery, for example, a couple smiling. However, these images can look ‘fake’ and not match your brand if you talk about a ‘personal touch’.

During my work on the homepages at Yahoo! and Aol I’ve seen that images related to a news story will get far more clicks than the headline. The area is larger, sure, but there’s something compelling about a photo. Touching it with your mouse can be impossible to resist. Try it next time you’re looking at a picture of a delicious meal!

Of course, cracking copy will complement attention-grabbing images – the two go together like ham and eggs. Don’t disappoint your users by giving garbled sentences and confusing messages. The pictures should grab attention and the copy should keep it there. If you have a website that needs sprucing up, call your dream team of professional photographer and copywriter.

Screen shot of Sky News story on 10 March 2010

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.