Website Design Graphics - an Overview

Website graphics definitely play a major role in marketing your website and are therefore, a very efficient and effective way of boosting your sales. It is very likely that your graphics give the potential customer their first impression of your site and it is very important that a consistent overall image of your site is created. The quality and positioning of the graphics contained in your website are essential for it to look both attractive and professional. If all else fails in your website design, using professional looking graphics can only serve to enhance your site.

Positioning
Obviously, in launching a website, you are trying to get a message across to the public, whether it be informative or strictly sales. In either scenario, the content of a website must be easily read. One way to achieve this is by breaking up the text with well positioned and relevant graphics, ensuring that the viewer's interest is held while you get your message across. The graphics should be complementary to the text and aid in conveying the message. The visitor should be able to look at a web page and instantly know what to expect from the rest of the site, remember that first impressions only count once, so make it count. Website graphics and their positioning play a vital role in website design to the point where they could either make or break your website.

Image Formats
Generally, the formats used for website graphics are either JPG or GIF, as they load quicker than most others. The JPG format is mainly used for photographs and the GIF format is mainly used for buttons, logos or menu bars. A word of warning regarding working with graphics in JPG format. This format is a lossy compression, which means that every time the image is edited and saved, it loses a small amount of quality. The best way to avoid this is to edit the image in the native format of the image manipulation software you are using, and then save the final version in JPG format.

Size Does Matter
Whenever someone visits a web page, that web page is downloaded onto their computer, which means that your graphics are downloaded as well. There are two very important factors that come into play here if the site contains large graphic files. The first being that if the viewer is using a slow internet connection, the graphic will take a very long time to download, causing the viewer to lose interest and probably leave the site. The second being that graphics can use a lot of bandwidth, which means that if there are alot of very large graphic files on the site, and that site becomes popular, then the cost of running that site may escalate. Therefore, if your graphics are more than 50kb, then seriously think about reducing their size. I will cover this in more depth in my next article, but there are two points that you should consider. One, stop thinking about inches or centimetres and think in pixels, as this is what your web page is measured in. Two, screen resolution wont be much better than 96 pixels/inch on most computers, so why use a graphic that has a resolution of 600 pixels/inch and therefore six times bigger?

Summary
Professional website graphics are attention grabbers and will make your site stand out in the crowd. They can enhance your website and increase it's popularity and thus generate revenue. Good website graphics add professionalism to your website, which will in turn entice viewers to return. On the flip side of the coin, poor quality or badly positioned graphics can cause your site more harm than good. Large graphics files can cause web pages to load slowly, potentially losing viewers and damaging your business. Working with graphics is very time consuming and an art form in itself. It might therefore, be more practical/economical, at times, to pay a professional to alter/construct the graphics you require.