Creative disciplines may just be the noblest of all human endeavors, but they too are not immune to everyday phenomena. Most artists frown upon the thought of implementing, recognizing or acknowledging trends, but through an existential prism – they also must admit that the world of design is fluctuating. Thus, even the forefront of the design palette, web design, fall under the same, fortunate or unfortunate rules. The current state inclines that web designers have to follow specific rules if they are to succeed.
This notion is especially true when it comes to the difficult and challenging task of placing images on your web page. Visuals play an essential role in a presentation. They reel in visitors. They present your brand and vision. Thus, people demand perfection from them. Perfection consists of much more than a semantic definition of flawlessness; it rotates not only around individual image characteristics but also the current trends of the visual world. What encompasses the current world the best? What is the antithesis of that same world?
All these things in mind are important factors to consider when choosing a photo gallery design for your website. HTML slideshows and photo galleries can make or break your brand, and we’re sure the “break” option is not an option. Let’s dig a little deep and see how can you help your website rise to the next level.
SEO and images – The importance
SEO is everything nowadays. If you want to boost the organic ranking of your website, it would be in your best interest to make it versatile and interactive. One way to do it is to add images. Search engines prefer sites with lots of different content; indicating that it the creator of the site invests a substantial amount of effort in the creation of that particular content. But, there is more to images than just SEO.
The human mind loves visual content. Why is that so? Well, the process of memorizing text is substantially longer and less interesting than the process of memorizing visual information. To learn words, you have to go through a series of steps to get the needed information. Here’s how it goes:
- Reading the letters
- Forming those letters into words
- Forming the words into sentences
- Forming a semantic unit in the broader sense of the expression
- Making a collective meaning out of a plethora of sentences
After going through the process, you will know why images are an indispensable part of every good website. Having a photo gallery on yours will reinvent the way people deem your brand and your work as a whole. In order to make these images even more useful, what do you have to do? The answer is – create a gallery. Let’s take a look at the way you should form this media section and what trends to abide by.
The photo gallery – an art worth mastering
You will probably find that there are several ways of implementing images on your pages. The first and most famous is the subtle implementation of visual information in a sea of text. When you’re posting content, make sure you add a visual representation of the information found in the last several paragraphs. It creates diversity.
The second one is in the form of a photo gallery. More images in one place create a sense of unification of content. The brain of the reader will get used to processing the same information over and over again, and every image will be easier to handle and understand. Photo galleries are perhaps the most underrated and shunned part of web design. Why?
In order to answer this question, we have to take notice of the difficulty of following trends and understanding customers. It takes effort and knowledge to accomplish this and, thus, we’ve decided to bring you the three most common and most popular photo gallery trends. They will be enticed to a plethora of customers but will still have some flaws. Understanding these three trends will help you find out how to choose the right photo gallery for your website.
Minimalism/Brutalism
These two styles can be deemed as one unified style or as two separate ones. They are characterized by the ease of view and a non-overburdening and straightforward interface. So, if you’re choosing to employ a brutalist or minimalist photo gallery outlook, your website will sport a clean and non-obstructive look.
The main advantages of such a gallery are simplicity and adaptability. You can use a minimalist photo gallery as a part of a landing page, whereas other styles would be too complex. Also, due to a lack of content, minimalist galleries accelerate the loading time of a site. Perhaps a disadvantageous aspect would be that same simplicity. Some people may find it annoying and dull, non-enticing and average. It all depends on the aim of your brand.
Image-based navigation
This form of image integration is an unorthodox way of making your site more interactive and a better place for your visitors. In this design, you will see that images replace basic text hyperlinks and navigational elements. This makes finding crucial features on the site much easier, especially for people with impaired vision.
If you choose to employ this type of photo gallery widget, you will find that children and elderly people will find your site much easier for use. A single flaw may be that, if you don’ use minimalistic images, the look will be less serious. This all depends on the content that you’re boasting. Choosing the right navigational images is key.
A multiple-vertical line gallery
Radiating cleanliness, tidiness, and complexity at the same time, this design is a great tool to help you display a large number of images at the same time. This allows for the heavy use of thumbnails and color combinations to entice and display at the same time.
However, don’t use this particular type of photo gallery if you intend to emphasize specific images. Because users have to click on every image to enlarge it, reserve the multiple-vertical line gallery for less significant imagery.
