| I know you like to put graphics on your page. There is little better
than a site which has been done by a professional graphics designer. The
perfect balance between graphics, color, fonts, photos and layout is rare
and a wonder to behold.
On the other hand, a site with bad graphics or some obvious blunders
can be agonizing and even painful to look at. Here are some of the more
common errors.
Large Graphics
Large graphics have their place on the web. Some sites give away massive
numbers of wallpaper images, which by definition are very large. In fact,
I know of a site which offers over a thousand Tomb Raider wallpapers that
is very good.
What you want to avoid is using large graphics on your main pages. Instead,
you can use a technique such as showing thumbnail images or links to the
larger graphics. Thus, those people who want the large graphics can get
them, while those who do not are not forced to wait for them to load. The
Tomb Raider site solved this problem by including 100 very small (32 x
32 pixel) thumbnails on a page. Clicking on an image displays the larger
wall wallpaper.
Improperly Optimized Graphics
All of the common graphics formats (GIF, PNG and JPG) allow for compression
of various kinds. One common error is to not take advantage of this compression.
For example, you can cut down the number of colors in a GIF image, which
makes it smaller. Or you can increase the loss percentage in a JPG, substantially
reducing it's size.
Why do you want to do this? Simply so that your visitors do not have
to wait for a long time while your graphics load.
Animations
Check the section called "Animation Mistakes"
for many common errors with animated graphics. Suffice to say that less
is generally better.
Graphics which Require Plug-Ins
There are some graphics formats which require exotic and obscure plug-ins
in order to be seen. While there are advantages to using plug-ins (Adobe
Acrobat comes to mind as an excellent plug-in to use) they should be avoided
when possible. Most of your visitors will not take the time to install
a plug-in just to see your web site.
Garish backgrounds
Keep your background graphics simple and neat. You want to make sure the
graphics are subtle and contract greatly with your text. In other words
do not use a light pink background with light red characters. Very hard
to read. Also avoid neon or other bright backgrounds - these tend to so
overpower your web site that people leave almost immediately. |
