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Evaluate the effectiveness of your photos

Photos are the unsung heroes of effective communication.

If a picture paints a thousand words you need to be sure that they are painting the right words in the minds of the people who view them.

Particularly if those people are your potential customers.

I’ve been on a mission to improve the effectiveness of photos since I wrote ‘Usability of Web Photos‘ in 2016.

When writing the book I created an evaluation framework for people to use to evaluate the effectiveness of their own photos.

The framework is based on the theory of rhetoric, the art of effective and persuasive communication.

It is designed to help you work out if your photos are helping to elicit the response you intended them to from the people who view them.

You can use it like a heuristic evaluation or to help guide qualitative research sessions.

Here’s an example from UXMagazine where I use it to evaluate some holiday accommodation photos.

Best of luck with it and let me know how you get on via @chudders

Photo Evaluation Framework

1. Legibility and credibility

Can you clearly see the content of the photo? (e.g. Focus, size, composition, exposure, crop etc)

  • Focus : Are the important elements of the photo in focus? Does all of the photo need to be in focus to communicate its message?
  • Composition: Has the composition been used effectively to draw attention to the relevant part of the photo and to create an aesthetically pleasing image? Would the photo be more effective if it was cropped in a different way?
  • Exposure: Is the exposure appropriate and are the key subjects of the photo correctly exposed?
  • Quality: Is the photo legible enough to see the important details?
  • Size: Is the physical size of the photo appropriate? Does the size make the subject of the photo clear enough? 

Do the photos look credible? – (e.g.  Does they look professional? Do they suit the brand? Are they appropriate and relevant? 

  • Professionally shot: Do the photos look like they have been taken by a professional? Is this important given the context of what you are evaluating?
  • Brand alignment: Are they the kind of photos you would expect to see from this brand?
  • Appropriateness: Are the photos appropriate given the context within which they will be viewed? 
  • Believable: To what extent have the photos been manipulated? Does this affect the credibility of what they depict or the message they convey?
  • Relevance: is the photo relevant to the content that it accompanies?

2. What message/s do the photos communicate?

What does the business or product owner want the photo/s to communicate? e.g. ‘Look how spacious our hotel rooms are’

What messages should the photo/s communicate to meet user needs?  e.g. ‘I wonder if that hotel room is worth £150 per night?’

What messages do the photo/s actually communicate to users?  e.g. ‘That room looks tiny, it’s not worth £150 per night!’

3. Usefulness and effectiveness

Do the photo/s result in the desired emotional response? e.g. Is the photo funny? Does it make me want that thing? Does it have a calming effect? 

  • Desire: Does the photo represent something in an attractive way?
  • Aspiration: Does the photo communicate how a product may fit into someone’s life or help them to live the lifestyle they aspire to?
  • Aesthetics: Is it pleasing to look at?
  • Calm: Does the photo create a calming effect? 
  • Others’ emotions: Does the content of the photo result in a direct emotional response from the viewer (for example, are people in the photo smiling, frowning or angry)?
  • Entertainment: Is the photo funny? Is it intended to entertain the viewer?

Do the photo/s help the user with their task? e.g. Does the photo serve a purpose or is it really just ornamental? 

  • Useful: Does the photo serve a purpose or is it just ornamental?
  • Educational: Does the photo teach something or provoke thought about a subject in a different way?
  • Helpful: Does the photo help users with their tasks? Does it prevent them getting lost? Does it answer their questions or help them to make the right choice?
  • Instructional: Does the photo show someone how to do something?
  • Constructive: Does the photo help to mitigate a user anxiety? Does it answer a typical question or concern?
  • Prevent errors: Does the photo help users to avoid making mistakes?
  • Recognition over recall: Does the photo aid recognition to save people having to remember things?
  • Communicative: Does the photo communicate its intended message effectively? 
  • Global suitability: Will the photo mean the same in different countries or cultures? Might it offend people from other cultures?
  • Complexity: Does the photo effectively convey something that would be difficult to put into words?

Will the photo/s influence the behaviour of the user in the way you intended?  e.g. Does the photo have the desired effect it was designed to have? 

  • Gaze direction: Should the people in the photos be looking towards other elements on the page or is it more appropriate for them to be looking back at the user? Service related websites benefit from eye contact with users, whereas product sites may benefit from gaze being diverted towards specific offers or buy buttons.
  • Prompting an action: Is the photo designed to prompt action such as to donate to a worthy cause? Do the contents of the photo encourage this behaviour? Does the photo encourage users to buy or to make a decision?
  • Changing opinions: Will the photo help to change our point of view?
  • Creating desire: Does the photo make its contents (and thereby the site’s products and services) desirable?
  • Sharing with others: Will the photo encourage the sharing of content with others? 
  • Perception: Will the user attribute a particular quality to a brand having seen the image, such as quality, craftsmanship and heritage?
  • Message: Does the photo communicate the message to people that is intended?

More photo UX related goodness :

Questions are the answer

Ben Holliday’s UXBristol talk about ‘Asking Design Questions‘ really resonated with me.

As a consultant, you can often feel like you are supposed to have all of the answers.

I think it’s more about having all of the questions.

Every challenge presents a problem to solve.

You can’t understand the problem without asking good questions.

They are fundamentally important throughout the entire process.

You need to question your brief in order to understand it properly such as…

  • Why are you doing this?
  • Why are you doing this now?
  • What do you think are the reasons behind the problem you are seeing?
  • What is the cost of the problem to the organisation today?

Successful early meetings are grounded on asking questions such as…

  • What problem are you really trying to solve?
  • How will we know if we have succeeded?
  • Who should we involve?
  • What should we know at the end that we do not know today?

Questions, questions, questions.

Our research starts with identifying the big questions that are on our clients minds such as…

  • Why has our conversion rate dropped?
  • Do people understand and value our proposition?
  • What are the most challenging aspects of choosing a university course?
  • Why do people choose our competitors over us?

We explore the business context of our work by interviewing senior stakeholders and asking questions such as…

  • What are you trying to achieve as an organisation?
  • How does this piece of work contribute towards your vision?
  • What is the impact of this problem?
  • What do you want to get from this project?

Questions, questions, questions.

We explore these within our research with people by asking them questions such as…

  • When did you book your last holiday?
  • What are you looking for in a new car?
  • How do you go about choosing a new savings account?
  • How do you find out about planned changes to your local area?

Once we’ve completed our research we’re still asking questions such as…

  • What have we learned?
  • How can we communicate our learnings in the most effective way to the people who need to hear them the most?
  • How can we apply what we have learnt to improve what we are working on?
  • Which problems should we tackle first?

Questions, questions, questions.

When our work comes to an end we’re still asking questions such as…

  • What went well?
  • What would we do differently next time?
  • What have we learned?
  • Which of our initial assumptions and hypotheses proved to be true?

But it’s not just the project team who are asking questions.

Our customers are full of questions that they need answers to before they can complete their everyday tasks such as…

  • Is it good quality?
  • Do I like the look of it?
  • Do I trust them?
  • Can I return it if I don’t like it?

The best products and services second guess (and then answer) the questions of the people who use them.

What’s the most important question you need to answer to improve your own project, career, product or service?

Questions are the answer.

Join us at UXBristol on 16th July!

The 11th UXBristol will be taking place, live on YouTube on Friday 16th July from 09:30 – 15:30 (BST).

The event is free, thanks to the generous support of our sponsors.

We hope to return to the MShed next year, but in the meantime are glad that we can keep the event running and reach a global audience!

We have a great line up of speakers covering a great range of topics in their 20 minute talks.

To get access to the conference slack channel and be entered into the tombola you will need to register for the event.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Master the basics of your business

Recently I listened to a the ex-England rugby player Will Carling talk about his time as captain.

He described a time when his team were experiencing a poor run of form.

He decided the team needed to reset by focussing on doing the basics well.

His thinking was sound.

His plan was to go back to basics and become better at them than anyone else in order to win more games.

First he asked his team to identify the basics.

Some argued for the line out, some for kicking, some for scrummaging.

They quickly realised they all had a completely different view on what the basics of a relatively simple game are!

What chance do you have of success if you can’t agree on what the basics are that you need to get right!

Every business has a set of ‘basics’ that it needs to master in order to succeed.

An airline has to have access to a fleet of well maintained planes.

An ecommerce business must offer a great delivery & returns service.

A photographer must have mastered the technical aspects of their equipment.

A business consultant must be able to build excellent relationships and trust with their clients.

Consider your own business.

What do you think are the basics that you need do brilliantly in order to succeed?

I bet you think it’s obvious but then when you give it some thought it becomes less unclear.

Ask your colleagues to do the same thing and compare your ideas.

If you all agree it’s good, you’re aligned.

If you all disagree then it gets really interesting!

Without this thinking and alignment how can you know where to focus your finite time and effort?

You can’t do everything, but you have to get the basics right to stand any chance of success.

Learn about the UX of Photography from optimisation legend Craig Sullivan

As a keen photographer I’ve always been keen to work out how I can crowbar my hobby into my day job.

An ideal opportunity arose many years ago when I noticed major usability issues resulting from the choice of photography on all of my design projects.

I realised just how hugely important photos were to how people made buying decisions and how they responded emotionally to what they were seeing and how that then influenced what they thought and how they behaved.

It felt like photos were the unsung heroes of experience design.

At this point I realised I was onto something and set about trying to improve the effectiveness of online photography and ‘photo UX’ was born.

This mission resulted in many articles, talks and even a book to provide help and guidance to improve the situation given that there was a surprising lack of information on the topic available online.

One person who has always done some really pioneering work in this area is optimisation guru Craig Sullivan.

I loved reading his work on measuring the impact that using different photos had on conversion rates and it was a joy to see someone else (who actually had some data!) was also highlighting the impact that photos can have.

I was delighted to see recently that Craig has shared one of his excellent talks on optimising photography during which he shares some great advice from years of experience and what he’s learned from having run over 20 million tests!

@optimiseordie insights from split testing with different images of people

In his talk you’ll learn more about :

  • What the “Rule of 3” for images is
  • Why stock photography performs badly
  • How to shoot photos of people
  • Why you should experiment with photography
  • How to challenge bad thinking or photos
  • How to make your own photography guidelines
  • About the only book on this topic
  • Why iconography generally doesn’t work

Craig’s talk on the UX of Photography is available on YouTube

Optimise your ‘key service moments’

Within any service there are critically important ‘key service moments’ (for both the service user and provider) that result in significant problems if they are broken in some way.

I recently worked on a project investigating why the physical health check service for people with severe mental illness was underperforming.

This is a really complex service that consists of many individual touch points, interactions and activities on the part of the service user and provider and what became clear was that some were much more important than others.

One example of a key service moment was when patients had a doctors appointments.

Appointments made people feel really anxious.

Will I be feeling well enough to attend?

What if I bump into someone I know in the surgery and have to explain why I’m there?

How will I get to the appointment?

What if I get that unsympathetic doctor again?

What if I have to discuss my recent breakdown?

The experience that service users had at these key moments had a huge impact on their experience of it as a whole.

Their anxieties around them often resulted in them not attending appointment which had a huge impact upon the medical professionals ability to deliver a successful physical health check service.

It became very clear that in order to design a successful service you have to ensure that these moments work really well.

I recently bought a second hand car.

This process was unbelievably complicated and had a few key moments that stick in my mind.

Trying to negotiate a good price for something I know very little about was really difficult and not at all enjoyable. Sorting out the money for it was tricky and something I haven’t done before.

There were also ‘key moments’ from the perspective of the dealer too. It became clear that it was really important for them to sell me add on products such as gap insurance, alloy wheel protection, paint protection, service plans etc in order to maximise their revenue.

In this instance my ‘key moments’ and theirs did not match but in some services this might be the case, presenting an obvious sweet spot to optimise, resulting in benefits for everyone.

When designing services it’s critical to identify and focus on optimising these ‘key moments’.

By focussing on them you benefit from ‘gearing’ in terms of the impact from optimising these things over others.

There are always too many problems to address at once so this approach also gives you a pragmatic method to prioritise where you spend your time and money in order to maximise your returns.

‘Every Mind Matters’ is live!

Last year during lockdown I had the pleasure of working with a great team at Public Health England to redesign the information architecture for their flagship mental health site, ‘Every Mind Matters‘.

The new Every Mind Matters Website

The new site redesign went live recently to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week, 2021.

The objective of the redesign work was to make it easier to help people find information that would encourage them to take action to help improve their own mental health.

It was a real privilege to work on such an important site that is receiving such huge volumes of traffic during the pandemic.

Find out more about the approach I took to the redesign over at the cxpartners blog.

UXBristol 2021 is go!

I’m over the moon to announce the wonderful line up of speakers that have kindly agreed to speak at UXBristol 2021.

UXBristol 2021

The event this year will consist of 6 short talks on Friday 16th July that will all be streamed live and for free via YouTube.

Thanks so much to Mace & Menter and ADLIB for sponsoring the event.

You can register for the event, get more information on our website and follow us on Twitter for more announcements.

The livestream from the UXBristol 2020 is also available should you wish to get a feel for the event.

Try this simple trick to help you design better things

It can feel almost impossible sometimes to come up with creative ideas to create great product and service experiences on demand.

One trick I’ve taken to is to simply flip it and consider what qualities a terrible experience would have.

Imagine you were planning on giving a talk and wanted to make it enjoyable and educational for the audience.

That feels like a challenging brief.

Now consider what you’d need to deliver a really awful talk.

I reckon to do it really badly you’d need to:

  • Not start on time
  • Don’t tell people what you’re going to cover
  • Talk REALLY quickly
  • Use language that no one understands
  • Don’t let anyone else speak
  • Fill it with acronyms
  • Make sure all the tech fails
  • Make it REALLY long
  • Cram your slides full of tiny text
  • Take a few phone calls during the talk
  • Talk on a topic with no relevance to any of the attendees
  • Don’t have any breaks
  • Be really arrogant and condescending to everyone
  • Make anyone who asks a question feel stupid
  • Have some slides so ugly only your mother could love them

Coming to think of it I think I went to a meeting like this last week! ; )

It’s SO much easier (and more fun) to come up with what would make something awful than what would make something great.

So all you need to do is create the ‘awful experience’, flip it and do the opposite.

It works nicely too when you are faced with a situation when you can’t articulate what you want (let’s imagine from a new job).

I bet you’ll find it so much easier to articulate what you don’t want.

Simple!

The transformative benefits of an ‘experimental mindset’

One of the most useful mindset hacks I use regularly is to adopt an experimental mindset to so many things in my life.

At work, I use this to frame the investigation of ideas as experiments consisting of assumptions and hypotheses to be investigated by trying them out and seeing what happens.

By framing things as experiments, it gives you permission to try something out and more importantly to fail, learn and to progress.

So many people, organisations, products and services never improve because people are terrified of ‘failure’.

Designers are particularly susceptible to this, often feeling they are expected to know the answers and for their work to be perfect.

An experimental mindset gives you permission to just try something out and feels hugely liberating.

Benefits outside of work

It works in so many aspects of you life too.

Imagine you wanted to pack in your day job and become a writer.

That’s a bold, high risk move that requires a massive decision.

Cue procrastination and paralysis.

An experimental mindset gives you a way of progressing by asking yourself ;

“What would be the smallest/ fastest/ cheapest/ lowest risk experiment I could do that would let me try it out?”

You could ‘prototype’ the idea by setting up a free blog, by writing an article for a magazine or by setting yourself a brief with a tight deadline or just start writing something to see how it feels.

You may quickly realise that you like the idea of being a writer much more than the reality.

That’s a great result because you’ve learnt something really important, really quickly, with minimal investment, and you’ve still got your day job!

Fake it before you make it

Prototyping is absolutely critical to this because it flips you from daydreaming to doing.

It is also really enjoyable because it is playful, experimental and a hugely creative exercise.

Prototypes help you to learn quickly, try things out, communicate your ideas to others and highlight aspects of your idea that don’t work.

Prototypes can take many forms and allow you to fake it before you make it.

A pop up restaurant is simply a prototype restaurant. They’ve wisely invested the smallest amount of money possible to see if their idea is any good or not.

A ‘draft’ document is simply a prototype of a document.

A tweet might be a prototype for a book idea, representing minimal effort to explore reaction to an idea before any additional effort is invested.

Prototyping is critical because it helps you to make progress with something that previously felt like it was going nowhere because it felt too big, scary and complex to make a start on.

So the next time you’re faced with a decision or have an idea you want to explore, just think ‘what’s the smallest experiment I could do here to try this out’ and I guarantee it will help you to progress.