Never underestimate the value and impact of a high-quality static image on its viewer. When used as part of a recurring theme throughout a site, customers will gradually absorb the message behind the images and will leave with a much stronger perception of what that brand stands for.
Photography is still an art form, but it is the closest to being a tangible, measurable one. It can deliver an influential message to your customers that no other form of content can: nothing can replace a powerful image, shot with intelligence and sensitivity to its ultimate context.
In a redesign project, it would be easy to see photography as a stand-alone saviour: add in some great new images and the site will be immediately transformed. Clearly, photography can have a major role to play in many sites, but not all, and its use should be focused on achieving a clear goal. This can be practical, 'showing off our products', or influential, 'we're a young, dynamic business', or both.
There are almost endless possibilities, and few of the old internet rules apply any more. Today, thanks to improving bandwidth and better compression technologies, photography can be used as a major part of the user experience and can deliver powerful visual messages to every customer.
The days when people turned off images for speed reasons are coming to an end: the challenge now is keep them switched on to valuable, influential parts of your brand personality.
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