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They do convey something very important: credibility. Or, at least, they coerce the fast pace internet viewer into having that first impression. I know its sil

They do convey something very important: credibility. Or, at least, they coerce the fast pace internet viewer into having that first impression. I know its silly, but the average viewers mind will subconsciously attribute more effort and quality - thus, credibility - to a polished photo than to any gradient. It sadly does not make a difference if its merely a stock photo bought for a few bucks. It still works. Also, a photo gives a more "real", less abstract impression, so the target customer can relate. You can't relate to a gradient. So the photo should be chosen according to the target customer. I agree though that some effort should also be put into technical aspects, e.g. making the photo file size as small as possible.

rokhayakebe 11y ago
Correct. They say "If truth was self evident, eloquence wouldn't be needed." Unfortunately most websites could be reduced to just text and no images, external css files, jquery, and more. However when the average consumer lands on such website they will not trust it or take it seriously.
lewisl9029 11y ago
I personally believe credibility at first impression has more to do with the overall polish and quality of your design than the existence of a photo. Sure, adding a photo might be an easy shortcut to fabricate the illusion of quality, but it's a shortcut that also has severe adverse effects on UX in bandwidth constrained environments, which actually has the opposite effect on perceived quality, and thus credibility, than the designer intended. This is why I believe it's worthwhile to explore alternative designs that don't rely on photos, at least once you're past that MVP phase where you just want to put something together as quickly and easily as possible. RE: You can't relate to a gradient. This is true enough, but there's no reason why you need to make users relate to a background image, when you can have them relate to something in the foreground like some kind of feature showcase of your app/service (with screenshots and such). A busy stock photo in the background is actually detrimental to this kind of design compared to something simple like a gradient. And in my opinion, this kind of design is much more directly relatable for users because you're presenting your value proposition to users explicitly rather than relying on your users being naive enough to fall for some subliminal mind trick. Stripe's landing page is one good example I can recall of such an approach: https://stripe.com https://stripe.com
- prawn 11y ago
  37 Signals split-tested various home page designs a while back and from memory it was the one with the large smiling face that was most successful.
  - nostromo 11y ago
    Here it is: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-testing-part-3-final https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-tes... "Big photos of smiling customers work"
    - togedoge 11y ago
      Sure, but now look at Highrise's visual approach. We know that they have A/B tested in the past, so I am going out on a limb to say that they continue to do so. They have a human element in their hero image on their homepage, and they include an image of a smiling influencer near the top. I'd reaffirm what others have said and test for your audience! I am not affiliated with business of the case study in the link you posted. https://highrisehq.com/ https://highrisehq.com/
  - hkmurakami 11y ago
    Yup unfortunately it's been shown that these stock photos do convert well. :(
- mduerksen 11y ago
  Stripes target group is developers. Developers, designers etc are special groups, predispositioned in certain way that may make them assess the trustworthyness of an offering differently, i.e. more analytically than most other users. "Normal" users buy more in the spirit of "no one was ever fired for buying Microsoft": since they lack other means of assessment, or have no time to carefully read the actual content, they fall back on things like nice photos. And they are a good proxy, as they compare it to advertisements of their local shops or yard sales. They dont know about stock photos. They just see a professional photo. And to be clear: Even me as developer would take such things into account. I have incomplete information, so I use proxies. Especially if I am in a hurry.

rokhayakebe 11y ago

Correct. They say "If truth was self evident, eloquence wouldn't be needed." Unfortunately most websites could be reduced to just text and no images, external css files, jquery, and more. However when the average consumer lands on such website they will not trust it or take it seriously.

lewisl9029 11y ago

I personally believe credibility at first impression has more to do with the overall polish and quality of your design than the existence of a photo. Sure, adding a photo might be an easy shortcut to fabricate the illusion of quality, but it's a shortcut that also has severe adverse effects on UX in bandwidth constrained environments, which actually has the opposite effect on perceived quality, and thus credibility, than the designer intended. This is why I believe it's worthwhile to explore alternative designs that don't rely on photos, at least once you're past that MVP phase where you just want to put something together as quickly and easily as possible. RE: You can't relate to a gradient. This is true enough, but there's no reason why you need to make users relate to a background image, when you can have them relate to something in the foreground like some kind of feature showcase of your app/service (with screenshots and such). A busy stock photo in the background is actually detrimental to this kind of design compared to something simple like a gradient. And in my opinion, this kind of design is much more directly relatable for users because you're presenting your value proposition to users explicitly rather than relying on your users being naive enough to fall for some subliminal mind trick. Stripe's landing page is one good example I can recall of such an approach: https://stripe.com https://stripe.com

prawn 11y ago
37 Signals split-tested various home page designs a while back and from memory it was the one with the large smiling face that was most successful.
- nostromo 11y ago
  Here it is: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-testing-part-3-final https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-tes... "Big photos of smiling customers work"
  - togedoge 11y ago
    Sure, but now look at Highrise's visual approach. We know that they have A/B tested in the past, so I am going out on a limb to say that they continue to do so. They have a human element in their hero image on their homepage, and they include an image of a smiling influencer near the top. I'd reaffirm what others have said and test for your audience! I am not affiliated with business of the case study in the link you posted. https://highrisehq.com/ https://highrisehq.com/
- hkmurakami 11y ago
  Yup unfortunately it's been shown that these stock photos do convert well. :(
mduerksen 11y ago
Stripes target group is developers. Developers, designers etc are special groups, predispositioned in certain way that may make them assess the trustworthyness of an offering differently, i.e. more analytically than most other users. "Normal" users buy more in the spirit of "no one was ever fired for buying Microsoft": since they lack other means of assessment, or have no time to carefully read the actual content, they fall back on things like nice photos. And they are a good proxy, as they compare it to advertisements of their local shops or yard sales. They dont know about stock photos. They just see a professional photo. And to be clear: Even me as developer would take such things into account. I have incomplete information, so I use proxies. Especially if I am in a hurry.