Posted by The site (and images) that I will be critiquing for this assignment is none other than www.ebay.com. The reason I chose this site to critique the images of is because I use this site quite frequently for my online shopping, and the use of images throughout the site are absolutely pertinent to one’s shopping experience. The amount of images on the homepage of Ebay alone is about 70 – images galore, basically. The cumulative file size reads to be 26.61 KB. The images on the webpage serve several purposes: to attract potential shoppers, to display information about the product being sold (for example, a shirt may be shown in various colors to let the shopper know their choices are virtually endless), and also, images are often times swapped out every 30 seconds or so on the homepage to let the viewer know that there are a variety of things you could possibly buy in just one visit on the site. Without the images being used, it’s impossible to actually shop – I mean technically, you could click on an item and purchase it but why in the world would you do that without actually seeing the item’s picture first? This is exactly why so many images are used and why the images are imperative to have for each item being sold and advertised – without images, there won’t be any shoppers. I believe that the use of images on the website are perfect; shoppers and buyers alike have the ability to upload and view images of products to help educate customers on what’s being sold.
My screenshot of the Ebay home page is attached.
You’re right. For the majority of shoppers, having product images makes shopping for an item online convenient. There is a segment of web users who cannot easily view images for one reason or another. Maybe they have a visual impairment of some kind. It is important to know, when designing a site, who the audience may be and how they will be accessing the site. Some people will use assistive devices to help them read content and navigate the web. Something to keep in mind.