If you come here very often, or you’ve just scrolled through a few pages… you’ve probably noticed that I put an image into almost every post. The story doesn’t always require an image, but I’m a very visual person. I like images. I like having a visual representation of the story.
This morning I came across this post, by Chris, over at Faraway, So Close. Chris had seen my post about the movie, A Scanner Darkly, and he followed the link to the trailer. He mentions he had also seen the original post about the movie on Binary Bonsai (like I did), a day earlier, but had not followed that link to the trailer.
What was the main difference between the two stories…? Mine had an image and the Binary Bonsai story didn’t. Having an image in the story made just enough difference to entice Chris to follow the link. As a visual person, and a designer, I find this very interesting.
Of course, this is not meant to say that all stories / blog posts everywhere should always have images. There are times when it may be best not to use images. It really depends on the content, the writer, and the intended audience.
I was surprised to see the “found at Binary Bonsai” in your post and that’s what clued me in to the fact that I had probably seen that already. It’s inspired me to take a little more time with each post/entry and think about the visual as well as the words.
Oh, and thanks for bringing me out of being a lurker on your site! :)
I try as often as possible to use them on my blog, and I got that idea from you Paul!
(WP needs an edit comment function), anyways – just noticed, this is your 1,000th Post! Congrats.
(Feel free to merge these 3 comments if needed, sorry)
In honor of your 1000th post, I felt it necessary to go back in time and capture what ODL used to be:
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/5530/logo7al.gif
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/1592/picture19xa.png
Cool! Thanks Laurence. I forgot all about that design.
Wow, 1,000 posts. I wasn’t paying attention… I had no idea.
Even if a photo used on an entry has no relation to the overally topic, it sure as heck draws your eye in…lol. But serious, incorporating an image does make for a better read.
Its funny, but something in me makes me ‘not be assed’ to read any articles that don’t have an image. It’s almost like an OCD… if it doesn’t have an image, I just don’t want to read it!