Web Design Graphics Can Be Da Bomb or Just Bomb

Contributed by Ian Hess

My Web Design Graphics Are So Stank, it's Da-Bomb-Diggity!

Web design graphics have several purposes, sometimes serving multiple functions at once. However, most uses of Web design graphics are either ill thought out, not thought about much at all, or else they look cool, so they were used. Even worse: Web designs that use graphics by starting out with the intention of creating a site that's "da bomb."

We've all seen these site. For example, many of us have noticed sites made by site owners who just saw Alien vs. Predator and decided to create a site bordered by the H.R. Giger-style skins, using the "alien motif." By the way, that's pronounced Hans Rudi Gee-ger, not Guy-gurr....) Not only are most "da bomb" sites trite in their effect and presentation, but as well, they literally stink.

The time it takes a large amount of truly useless graphic data to download is time the user spends sitting at their computer without reason. People, as a whole, are spending more time on the Net each year, and they are doing this because they find the Internet useful. They are neither doing it because they really enjoy sitting around doing absolutely nothing, nor because they need reasons to spontaneously yell, "Coolness! "

Once you've become an experienced Net surfer, when you find yourself waiting for graphics to download, you start to recognize that slow sites often indicate the rest of the site will be poorly designed as well.

*Rarely* is a site highly worthwhile AND poorly designed. That's not "stank." That's stink. Smell something fishy? We surfers punch out. We're kind of shallow that way. This ain't the deep sea - to push the metaphor even further.

Your Web Design Graphics Need a Purpose

Your site isn't actually what's on it, anyhow. Your site is who sees it and uses it. For example, a hammer isn't for hammers. It isn't even about hammers. Neither is a toolbox. A hammer is a tool used by carpenters, home improvers, and sometimes mass murderers. Sometimes all three. Which of these audiences is your site going to hammer on?

Most effective Web content is text. Textual information is at the heart of Web design because it is more specific than pictures. Many of us have probably heard the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." That's somewhat inaccurate, because a thousand words will often paint a very specific picture with far less doubt unless our Web design graphics are well thought out and placed. We cannot do this without a very specific idea of what we want to achieve using graphics.

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