Chapter11

Chapter Eleven Response
An illustration on a web page must serve a purpose. Pictures, graphics, charts can enhance the site visitor’s experience if used properly. Redish explains that the key to using successful illustrations lies in the web developer’s ability to think about how the illustration will benefit the visitor. As she tells us repeatedly in the text, Redish wants the developer to think about what people “want” to see. Take this particular page [] for online services for the Minnesota Driver and Vehicle services for instance. It uses images and icons that don’t enhance the understanding of the links and the eye has to travel around the page to find the appropriate link. Do people who want to renew their tabs really want to see a cutesy graphic with cars or do they just want to find the link and get the task over with?

Several great tips and examples are given to the reader by Redish:

1) When the web developer uses a photo to enhance the concept, explain a procedure, or help to see a product it is always a good idea to make sure the photo is large enough to be helpful. Sometimes a photo will give the direction to “Click to Enlarge.” It’s a good idea to make sure that the photo actually does enlarge when promoting this action. For Robyn’s alumni web site, she puts up online photo albums after certain events (i.e. [] ). She primarily promotes these pages to the attendees of the events. What is good about these online albums is that all photos do link to an enlarged image. However, they do violate the rule of including an alt tag making these pages inaccessible.

2) When showing a product on an e-commerce site, offer multiple views to give the visitor a better idea of what the product is about. I like what Apple does for their product views. Take a look at the tab “gallery” on this page. []

3) When you are migrating information from a traditional print publication to the web, you should make an effort to maintain the “look and feel” of the print publication so that the site is immediately recognizable as an “official” web publication of the print document. An excellent example of this rule is the National Geographic Magazine site. [] Notice the trademarked yellow border and consistent use of the National Geographic font as well as the photo showing the magazines in the upper left corner.

4) A graphic sometimes shows dimensions much better than spelling them out. Without looking too far, you need only see the example used by the U.S. Postal Service explaining postage rates in relation to envelope size. The visitor can easily identify with the images showing letter sizes.

5) When showing long lists such as countries of the world or States of the U.S., it’s easiest to use a drop down list rather than showing long lists of names. Sometimes giving an option such as a map, list or drop down menu will allow the user the pick the option that works best for them.

6) Faces are more appealing than buildings or other inanimate objects when portraying a mood or feeling of a place. But do not forget to accurately represent the human component of the organization paying special attention to diversity. For the alumni e-newsletter that Robyn produces every month, she changes the photos on the masthead to try and evoke an emotional response. For example, in December, she might use a photo of students walking across the campus in the snow, maybe triggering a memory of the alumna/us reading the newsletter from when they were a student trudging through the snow to class. Also, representing diversity in the e-newsletter and on the alumni web site is very important as the alumni population is very diverse.

7) Make small pictures clear. If a picture is being used an icon or bullet, a quick glance should give the viewer an unmistakable understanding of what the illustration is.

8) Don’t hide navigation under photos. I’ve heard it referred to as “mystery meat navigation.” Visitors don’t want to guess what’s behind the picture. They want to know immediately where they’ll be taken when they click on an illustration or graphic.

9) Content should never look like an ad. If it looks too much like an ad, the visitor will most likely ignore the link.

10) Moving, blinking, or flashing text or graphics can be distracting. Unless the movement is for a purpose. What do you think of the movement here - [] ?

11) Don’t change content while people are on a page. News sites routinely do this. Is it a problem for the visitor?

12) Visitors don’t want to sit through flash or splash animation. Let them get to the site quickly and without impediments. As the text stated, “Web usability experts Nielsen and Loranger called for an abolishment to this practice of using flash and splash already in 2006.” It’s still an issue. However, some sites use it more convincingly than others. [|www.rush.com]

13) Finally, Redish tells us to make certain that illustrations are helpful to non-sighted visitors also. The section about this practice refers to alt text. While the advice is useful, I found the section to be less than clear about what alt text actually is.

Illustrations and graphics should be useful and serve a purpose for the site visitor. If they don’t, they are merely taking up valuable space on your web page. When you are developing sites with heavy illustrations, make sure to put the site visitor’s hat on and think about how the “pictures’ work. If you look at the process through the visitor “lens” you’ll have a better site in the end.

My Response:

The first point that this group brings up is one that is very important, very simple, but is often ignored by web sites. I cannot count just how many times I have been on a site selling an item and clicked on a link for a larger image and was greeted with an image that was the same size. When I cannot clearly see an image I am contemplating buying I simply go elsewhere, and is most likely true of any potential buyer. It is a loss for the website that could have been easily remedied with the help of making sure that the image that is promised is actually delivered.

Another point which this group brings up which I feel is important is making sure that illustrations do not look like an add. I feel that this advice is actually very important for sites that have a lot of ads on it already. Some sites that I have encountered are funded through ads placed on their pages. These sites have the especially difficult task of insuring that the images they place on the page, along with the text, is not drowned out by the number of ads that are also on the page. They need to ensure that their images stand out against the ads and are obvious in their purpose, whether they be for information purposes, used as links, or there to set the mood.

Lastly, I think the most important is being clear of the purpose of a linked image. If an image is to be used as a link, make sure that is obvious. Too often I have been on a site an had to literally poke around until I found the actual links. This is more than a little frustrating for any user and could be easily remedied with proper labeling.