Picture Perfect: 5 Strategies for Using Graphics on Your Site

Today’s Web technology makes it relatively easy for us to put lots of fun and colorful graphics on our Web sites. And while images certainly can enhance the visual effectiveness of a site, they can also clutter your space and distract from the message. Following these 5 strategies can help you avoid those traps and create a site that your visitors will continue to visit.

1. Establish Your Theme – Web graphics can pull your site together to create a cohesive theme. Colors and fonts can be combined to convey your purpose and style, giving you an opportunity to graphically portray your business image rather than just talk about it in your text. Consider the purpose for your site as well as what you want visitors to think about you as you use graphics, colors, and fonts to present your theme.
2. Site Navigation – Design your graphics to help your visitors move through your site. Graphical navigation buttons and menus can be designed to include your company colors and images that represent your pages, rather than plain text hyperlinks. A well-designed and organized menu will provide logical direction and smooth movement between pages and links.
3. Create Transitions – Use graphics for divider lines or horizontal rules to organize text and create an easy-to-follow presentation so visitors can quickly find the information they need.
4. Use Bullets – Using bullet points help you emphasize points and summarize information, giving your readers a quick reference. While you want your bullets to be small and unobtrusive, you can still use them to reinforce your theme by incorporating color or a unique shape.
5. Serve a Purpose – Pictures of cute animals or blinking objects do nothing for your site if they are just there to look pretty. Your graphics should enhance your site and serve as another medium to get your message across to your audience. Use them to emphasize your main points and make sure they are directly related to your business and the image you want to portray.

It’s important to remember the size of you graphics as you incorporate your designs into your Web site. Make sure your design is not so huge that visitors have to wait to see your pages.

Graphic and Web design professionals can help you achieve the perfect mix of images, colors, fonts and size to give you an attractive yet functional site that will encourage your visitors to find out more about you and your services.

Contact e-websmart today to get started!