Well, it tells people things, for a start. Without words, your images have an awful lot of work to
do. Aside from this flippant point, it should go without saying (although I’ll say it anyway) that
your text should be legible, to the point, and within easy reach. Visitors are rarely coming to a
web site to sit back and admire your graphics—it is most often information they are seeking.
Graphic embellishments are often mere decoration.
The issue of accessibility is an important one here. Responsible web developers spend a lot
of time ensuring that their designs are not compromised under user-defined viewing situations.
For example, if a style sheet is not available, or images are turned off, the image-based
buttons in the navigation bar will need replacement text to assist navigation. Equally important
is replacement text for general images, especially images that convey a particular message
or act as a link to another page, and there are many circumstances where background colors
can conflict with text of the same color when images are absent. Issues such as these need consideration at every stage of the design process. Essentially,
your web site should make just as much sense with or without all images, and the hierarchy of
your content should remain apparent in any situation.
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