Making Website Image Maps More User-Friendly

Image maps are a great way to simplify and de-clutter the layout of your website. If you are quite unsure of what an image map is, it is an image where a Web user can click on different parts and it will take them to different links on your site. To give an example - let us say you are a shoe designer. On your home page there is a picture of a large open closet filled with shoes. It is just one picture, but if users roll their cursor over a pair of shoes, they can click on it and it will take them to a link that provides more information about that specific pair of shoes.

When creating image maps though, you have to think about how it can make browsing on your site more convenient for visitors. It is easy to get carried away with all your creative ideas, but if you end up creating an image map that is confusing, you will be discouraging people from coming back to your page. So, make sure that your image map is not difficult to understand and to navigate. You should also include some kind of indication that it is an image map. You can do this with a “rollover effect” where rolling the cursor over certain parts of the image will result in visual changes, indicating that that portion of the image will lead to another link. Alternatively, you can always just include text explaining that it is an image map.

Lastly, it is best to always use JPEG files for image maps since they offer better picture quality and they load faster. For digitally created photos, use the GIF format. Remember to avoid BMP formats since these are heavy in size and will take a long time to load on your page.

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