The Emotions of Web Site Images

Think about going to the movies. You sit in front of a screen. A light is projecting images in front of you. You hear music and language. You start to feel emotions like anger, sadness, happiness, excitement, etc. The projected images and sound put signals into your nervous system that trigger a response.

The same thing happens when you're sitting at your computer surfing the web. You feel emotions and there is a response, though not as strong as going to the movies. When you see a website that pleases you, you want to explore it and come back again. On the other hand, a site that looks less than average is a site that you'll leave immediately and forget about.

Ah, the power of images and emotion. The world inside of us is directly effected by the images and sound that we see outside us. The online experience is becoming more and more a reality for all of us as most of us spend more and more time online. Its becoming a more emotional experience.

What do you feel when viewing this picture:

Versus this one?

So, you might want to think about the images on your site and what emotions your viewers experience when viewing them. Are they triggering good emotions that make them want to read more or are they leaving a bad impression because they don't convey strength, confidence or other good emotions?

The images you use on your site are extremely important and are not to be chosen lightly. Make sure you're working together with your web designer to choose images which best present your company's message.

I'm going through this now myself as we redesign our site at www.bellawebdesign.com.  We've carefully chosen images which portray a line of text that will come in along with the image.  So far its working beautifully and I can't wait to debut our site in the next few weeks.

Now, adding video to your site. That's a whole different experience, getting closer to that movie experience I talked about earlier. (I believe this topic begs its own post later this week!) Imagine your site controlling the emotions of your visitors through video with images and sound...pretty powerful stuff. Your video can be the CEO or President introducing your services/products. You can also do some infomercials showing your products in action. This is the next step in web design that people are embracing all over the world. More to come on that topic this week.