Why
- Photographs and images when relevant add meaning to content.
- Use photos strategically to break up text, highlight key points, and guide users through your content.
- Photographs can act as an attracter by drawing someone's gaze to the image and then to content.
- Photographs in their own right can tell a story on their own. As they say every picture tells a story.
- In photographic practice, visual storytelling is often called a 'photo essay' or a 'photo story'. It's a way for a photographer to narrate a story with a series of photographs. Captions in this instance would be important to help tell that story.
- Photographs can also be used as decoration, a way to graphically break up a page.
- Relevance and decoration are important from an accessibility perspective where blind and visually impaired people can not see the image. Images may or may not need an alt tag. (See alt tags)
How
- Consider the size and position of the image in relation to other elements on the page.
- Maintain visual balance and avoid cluttering the layout.
- Ensure the photos are high-quality and visually appealing. Blurry or pixelated images will detract from the user experience.
- Consider the format and size of the images. Optimize them for web delivery to avoid slow loading times. WebP is a new format so consider that.
- Use a tool like Image Shrinker to optimise jpgs without loosing quality. (See Image Optimisation)
- Optimise photos for search engines by using relevant filenames and keywords.
- Consider using thumbnails for larger images to encourage clicking and faster loading.
- Explore interactive features like lightboxes or galleries to showcase multiple images.