Do Graphics Matter?

Do graphics really matter when it comes to your site?

Will the look and feel of your graphics determine how successful your site can be?

What do you guys think?

 

It can have a huge impact. No one wants to be a part of a community if the site is ugly or outdated. The only way you might be able to get away with an poorly designed site is if you already have an active forum, and you don't want to risk losing any of them....just look at the outrage on facebook every time they make a little tweek to their design.

 

It absolutely does. Without graphics, it's going to be hard to lure people to go visit a website. It helps a lot to catch the attention of the page visitors. It's important to invest on a good graphic designer because it is actually crucial to the website.

 

Me three. I agree that graphics are very important. Human beings are very visual people. Why do you think they developed these nifty operating systems to replace boring old command prompt. Colors, pictures, graphics, page design and flow are all important to keeping your readers firmly planted in their seat, hands still. Stimulate the brain and mind, and people respond.

 

I know that for me personally, graphics make a huge difference. I will spend a lot more time on a site that has pleasing colors and nice images. On the other hand, if I find that the graphics are getting in the way of me doing whatever I need to do on the site, I will leave. You have to strike the right balance.

As someone else pointed out, people are very visual and they respond well to images. I think as video games and other visual media play a greater role in society, the need to have good graphics on sites will become more pronounced.

 

Oh absolutely! If your graphics look like they were thrown together in the dark then how can you expect your potential clients to treat you in a professional manner?

 

Graphics are important, but a balance between a nice interface and speed is the most important thing.
We use a lot of CSS on our vB3 sites. Once example is www.rccanada.ca Not graphic heavy, I think its just enough.

Note, people hate the default theme, they prefer the dark theme (bottom left theme selector).

When it comes to graphics, there used to be some awesome vB3 themes out there. biggest issue though, atleast from what i seen, load time and upgrading.

 

To a degree.

On the one hand, a very dull, image lacking style can look completely uninteresting and put people off ever returning to/using your site. And if your images literally do suck (as in, Sonichu level/Hammer Brother Demo 3 level bad), then people won't take you very seriously at all.

On the other hand, they matter less than a lot of other things. Your site can look pretty as anything, but if it's got no community or no useful content, what's the point of it all?

 

Of course they do. From my experience, graphics is what users appreciate the most, tied with site responsiveness. So I always try to keep my graphics fresh and eye-pleasant.

 

Graphics have a huge affect on people as they are what can really draw people into buying into a website, product or service over text or anything else.

 

I think a good graphic can make you look professional. If you don't have the skills, it's best to have none and just focus on a clear and nice color scheme.

 

I spend like 2 weeks to just to make my forum look nice and original..
And an another 2 weeks to create tweaks and change the features/codes and so on.

So yes, for me the graphics are very important, but I've seen some very succesful outdated, ugly forums..
Take a look at http://forums.somethingawful.com/ - ugly and outdated vbulltin software (correct me if I'm wrong), and still in the top 10 biggest forums of the world.. oh my..