If using photography in any designs it is important to consider many different factors:

• You should always use higher quality images as they will give your design a more professional and refined look.
• It is ideal to use adaptable images that work across different devices, as it keeps the design consistent, it can also mean that users can access the design across different devices and that it will work well.
• The context of the photo matters, any images that are used you be relevant to the design and product, photos shouldn’t be used for no reason or just to fill space.
• The images that are used should be consistent, it is ideal to use your own original photos to achieve this rather than using stock images. Keeping the images consistent will help to keep the overall design more consistent and will allow users to more quickly learn about content of the design.
• The images used should be accessible, you should always try to include alt text for any images used, the colours of images should also aim to be accessible in contrast. If both of these factors are considered it will allow a wider range of audience to use the design for its intended purpose more efficiently.

Imagery can do several different things for a design:

• Using images can provide related information and context for the users, images allow you to display information in a way that doesnt fully rely on text - this can make designs more interesting and can make some information easier and quicker to understand. Images can also make designs more appealing to the user which can help in users actually wanting to use and interact with the design.
• Images can help to illustrate ideas and products, some content may be much easier to show using photos and they can be more effectively marketed by directly showing the user what they would be getting.
• Images can help communicate information/data quickly, users will be able to take in information much faster by using images and visual ways to display data rather than using large blocks of text. Users will be able to quickly find what they are looking for through the correct use of images.
• Images can help build a style/brand or personality of a particular product. Being able to effectively show the personality of the brand that is being displayed will allow to more easily market towards a products target audience.

However it is also important to not use too many images as it can affect the user experience as they can make it more difficult for the user to actually find what they are looking for.

I am not currently planning on including any images in my current project, but this will be important to remember for any other projects that i do.

Useful Websites for Photographs

Squoosh - reduces photo file size, making designs easier to run on different devices.

Webaim - can check the colour contrast of images to ensure they are accessible.

Unsplash/Pexels - Free stock images, useful for placeholder photos to give generally idea of design in earlier stages