Projects/Usability/HIG/Layout/Image

Purpose

Images can convey meaning and emotion. Preserving these characteristics is the primary focus of this guideline.

Guidelines

• Ensure images have the appropriate resolution for their containers. Try to not scale images up beyond their native resolution - the result will be fuzzy or pixelated.
• Don't be afraid of larger image sizes. Images are most effective when they can be seen. Tiny images lose much of their meaning (unless they are specifically crafted for small sizes).

• For example, consider a large contact photo (left) instead of a tiny thumbnail image (right). People recognize faces faster than names.
• Captions can be placed on the image (left) instead of outside of the image (right) allowing the image to be larger and the content to be more immersive.

• Use a semi-transparent background behind the caption text to preserve contrast for legibility.
• Try to preserve the image aspect ratio. If preserving the aspect ratio is a challenge, consider cropping the image to fill the container instead.