Photography is important in UI design- especially when selling products such as clothes or food, and for building a brand.
<aside> 💡 The Aesthetic Usability Effect describes a paradox in which people perceive aesthetically pleasing design to be more intuitive and easier to use than less aesthetically pleasing design- even if that is not the case.
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This teaches us that visually pleasing design should be highly valued, as it can mask minor usability issues. This applies to photography within UI as well. When using photography and images, it is important to use high quality images with good composition, lighting and subject matter that is consistent with your brand.
Photography is also used in UI to communicate information or data. This could be about a physical product or service, or about a brands identity.
The NHS website features an image of healthcare workers wearing scrubs and stethoscopes. This clearly fits in with their brand identity as a government health service, and communicates to the user that they are there to help.
The Visit Derry website features photography very heavily also, as the best way to convince someone to ravel to a city is to show them exactly what it is like. In this case illustration or other forms of imagery would not be as impactful as photography, which captures the liveliness better.
Pexels, Pixabay, iStock, Getty Images.