Evaluating Graphics Essay

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Selecting Appropriate Graphics for Web Sites

In giving recommendations concerning appropriate images for a splash page of a website to a beginning web developer, it is important for graphics to be relevant to a website, diverse in gender, age, and race, and appropriate in the use of color.

Using Relevant Graphics
I would first suggest that all graphics should be relevant to the subject of the website. If a graphic is not serving any purpose at all, I would suggest not using it because some users may become annoyed at the unneeded use of graphics. This leads me to the two fundamental purposes of graphics which Dr. Palmer discussed in class on Tuesday, February 17, 2004. Along with my course in technical editing, I have learned that …show more content…

I chose these two types of graphics because of their appropriateness to a universal audience. These types of graphics are usually both visually appealing and interesting. As Susan Hilligoss and Tharon Howard state in Visual Communication: A Writer’s Guide, “Readers take in a document’s visual design and images immediately. We apply lasting memories of images across the documents we encounter. Thus the design affects readers’ first impressions of genre, interest, and importance” (8). The graphic chosen will form the first impression of the reader, therefore, graphics must be chosen with much …show more content…

For this reason, a web developer should consider the appropriateness of graphics and be prepared to accept the consequences if pictures are not appropriate for younger viewers. As was discussed in class, graphics must be diverse in both ethnicity and gender. Graphics must have an even dispersal of both males and females and must not be one-sided to any race. The web designer has to remember that the world is very diverse and not everyone is just like him/herself. Using an equal distribution of graphics will help alleviate the problem of offending any users because of noticeable bias in graphics. As Bruce Grierson states in his article “Shock’s Next Wave” featured in Picturing Texts, people in the world today are less likely to be shocked by graphics or text in advertisements. I believe this is apparent because of the new level of freedom in today’s culture, with dress, speech, and television shows becoming more provocative. As it states in the beginning of the article, “The old-school of ad making–establishing the product’s ‘unique selling position’ and carefully building brand loyalty–is dead” (136). I would recommend that a beginning web developer not have the goal of shocking one’s viewers. Instead, I would recommend including interesting photographs or pictures that are unique, yet appropriate to all

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