Product Images Flashcards
Why are product images important to have on the product page?
Product images often act as users’ primary method for evaluating a product; without the ability to physically inspect the product or hold the item in their hands, product images often represent the next best substitute for gaining a rich visual understanding of the product.
56% of desktop subjects begin exploring the images as their first action upon arriving on a product page — before reading the product title, description, or scrolling down the page to get a more comprehensive overview.
To account for the diversity of product images required, most product types will need no fewer than 5 product images — and almost no product type should have fewer than 3.
During testing, even somewhat nonaesthetic products — like a hand cream or a power adapter — proved they need more than just 1–2 plain “Cut Out” images. Products that have both specific features and where aesthetics are important — like consumer electronics, furniture, and apparel — will need a wide variety of image types and may need as many as 5–15 images to cater to users’ different needs for performing a full visual inspection and evaluation of the product.
While bespoke and quality imagery can be resource-intensive to produce, it’s critical for any product and site that competes on anything more than just having the lowest price.
The single biggest issue is that 20% of sites fail to provide the “In Scale” image type (#741), meaning that users will have a difficult time immediately grasping the overall size of the product, which is still a cornerstone user issue in virtual shopping. (This is a slight improvement from 2019’s 27%.)
7% of sites don’t allow user-uploaded product images, despite a subgroup of users factoring these heavily into their purchasing decisions, as the user-generated images are seen as a much more realistic and trustworthy product representation compared to the vendor’s polished product images (#756). (A significant improvement from 32% in 2019 and 40% in 2017.)
47% of sites only depict their (9 top-selling) products from 3 angles or fewer, despite our testing revealing that users need the product depicted from at least 3 angles to even perform a visual inspection of a product
If having extensive and rich imagery will be unrealistic for a site’s entire product catalog, ensure rich imagery is at least available for the best-selling products, and for the product types that are strategically important to the site.
What is the core advice
Core Issue: Users heavily rely on a variety of product images to inspect and evaluate products to determine if the product matches what they are seeking. However, they are sometimes not provided with sufficient visual information.
Core Advice: Always provide no fewer than 3–5 images for all products. For sites with vast product catalogs, prioritize providing sufficient images for the most important, most popular, and best-selling products.
What percentage of desktop participants begin exploring product images as their first action on a product page, and what does this behavior imply?
Percentage: 56% of desktop participants begin exploring the images as their first action upon arriving on a product page.
Implication: This behavior implies that product images are critically important for users and are often prioritized over the product title, description, and other content. Therefore, ensuring high-quality and sufficient images is essential for user engagement and product evaluation.
Why do users rely heavily on product images when shopping online?
Without the ability to physically examine the product before buying it, users rely on product images to inform them of the product’s key visual features. This reliance on images helps users make informed decisions about the product’s appearance and suitability for their needs.
What specific product details do users look for when purchasing a new dress online, and what happens when there are not enough images to convey these details?
Product Details Sought: When purchasing a new dress online, users typically look for:
Color
Weight and texture of the material
Length
Overall shape and fit (both when worn and when hung from a hanger)
Consequence of Insufficient Images: When products do not display enough images for users to get a full sense of these details, users are less likely to be confident that the product has all the features they are looking for or will fit their needs. This lack of confidence can reduce the likelihood of purchasing the product.
How do product images function on product details pages?
Product images often serve as users’ entry point to exploring products on product details pages. They are typically the first element that captures users’ attention and encourages further investigation of the product.
Across product types, product images served as an important hook to entice users to explore the product further.
Does the reliance on product images by users vary between visually driven products and spec-driven products during initial evaluation?
Interestingly, during testing, participants’ reliance on product images held for both more visually driven products, such as bags, backpacks, and apparel, and for more spec-driven products, such as refrigerators and consumer electronics — at least for their initial evaluation of the product. This demonstrates that product images are crucial for initial evaluation across various product categories.
How does the number of product images affect user engagement on product pages
Effect on User Engagement: Users are observed to linger longer on product pages that have multiple images to explore. For example, one participant spent twice as long on product pages with multiple images (60 seconds) compared to those with only a single product image (30 seconds). This indicates that increasing the number of product images can enhance users’ engagement with the product.
what do users appreciate regarding product images?
User Appreciation: During testing, it was found that sites typically did a good job providing multiple product images, with 81% of benchmark sites displaying at least 4 images per product. Users appreciate having at least a few different images to click through, even for “simple” products that may not be especially visually interesting, such as a jar of moisturizer or a simple tee shirt.
What are the three general types of product images that should always be included for most products, and why?
The three general types of product images that should always be included for most products are:
Images that show products “In Scale”: These images either compare the product to other objects or settings, or show the product on a model or human frame of reference. This helps users understand the product’s size and proportion in a real-world context.
Images that highlight a product’s features: These images focus on specific features or details of the product, providing users with a clear view of what makes the product unique or functional.
Images that show products from a few unique angles: These images offer different perspectives of the product, ensuring that users can see it from various viewpoints to get a comprehensive understanding of its design and appearance.
Additionally, sites can consider adding descriptive product text or graphics to images to provide users with additional information (see #752), providing “Lifestyle” images to get users excited about products (see #744), and providing user-generated product photos to fill in gaps where site-provided product images may fall short
Including these types of images helps users make informed decisions by giving them a thorough visual understanding of the product.
What is the difference in feasibility for providing multiple high-quality images between individual brand sites and mass merchant or traditional e-commerce sites, and what should e-commerce sites prioritize at a minimum?
Difference in Feasibility:
Individual Brand Sites: For these sites, it is relatively easy to shoot multiple high-quality images for all products sold, as they typically have control over the product imagery process for their specific range of products.
Mass Merchant or Traditional E-commerce Sites: These sites sell products from multiple vendors, making it often unrealistic to shoot multiple high-quality images for each product in the entire product catalog due to the vast number of items and varying sources.
Minimum Priority:
E-commerce sites should at least source, buy, or shoot high-quality images for the most important product verticals and best-selling products. This ensures that the most critical and popular items have sufficient visual information to aid users in their purchasing decisions.
What must be ensured once an appropriate number of high-quality and detailed product images are available, and what specific features should be considered for optimal user navigation?
Once an appropriate number of high-quality and detailed product images are available, it must be ensured that users can easily navigate them on product details pages to fully benefit from the site’s investment. Specific features to consider for optimal user navigation include:
Zoom Functionality:
Hover-Based Zoom on Desktop: This allows users to see a magnified view of the product by simply hovering over the image, providing a quick and intuitive way to inspect details without extra clicks.
Pinch-to-Zoom on Mobile: This supports users’ natural gestures on mobile devices, allowing them to zoom in and out by pinching the screen, enhancing the mobile browsing experience.
These gallery interface considerations, along with others, are fully explored in the Image Gallery UI topic to ensure that the navigation of product images is seamless and user-friendly.
How can large organizations justify allocating more resources to product images, and what additional functionalities can enhance product presentations?
Justifying Resource Allocation:
To make a strong case internally for allocating more resources to product images, large organizations can closely monitor the return on investment (ROI) through A/B split-testing on select high-traffic products or product categories. This approach allows them to empirically measure the impact of additional product images on user engagement and conversion rates.
Additional Functionalities:
In addition to multiple product images, some products can benefit from higher effort functionalities such as:
Product Videos: These provide dynamic, detailed views of the product in use, helping users understand its features and benefits better.
360-Views: These allow users to interactively rotate the product, giving them a comprehensive view from all angles, which can enhance their understanding and confidence in the product.
Implementing these functionalities requires specific design considerations to ensure they are effectively integrated into the product page and provide a seamless user experience.
In which of the following scenarios should a site not invest in having at least 3-5 images for all products?
If the site is a mass merchant, has a large catalog, or sells products from multiple vendors, making it difficult to accommodate in every instance
What is the core issue with using only “Cut Out” product images, and what is the recommended solution?
Core Issue: Users are unable to get a sense of or evaluate a product’s size when only provided with “Cut Out” product images.
Core Advice: Always provide at least one “In Scale” image showing the product relative to the surrounding environment, human models, or other products of known sizes. For very large product catalogs, consider using computer-generated “In Scale” images.
Why is it difficult for users to grasp a product’s size from web images, and what impact does this have on their experience?
Difficulty in Grasping Size: It is much more difficult to get an immediate and accurate grasp of a product’s size when viewing images of products on the web.
Impact on User Experience: Despite this difficulty, the desire to understand a product’s size still exists. For example, during desktop testing, a surprisingly high 42% of participants attempted to use the product images to judge the scale of the product. When it’s difficult to judge scale from product images, users have to work needlessly hard to determine product sizes. During both desktop and mobile testing, participants were repeatedly observed to draw inaccurate conclusions about the size of the depicted item, leading to potential dissatisfaction and frustration.
Why are “In Scale” images important, and how can they be used effectively to represent size attributes that are difficult to show visually?
Importance of “In Scale” Images: Without the frame of reference provided by “In Scale” images, users can easily develop misconceptions about a product’s size. Products in “Cut Out” images may appear too large or too small due to variables in the photography, such as shadow and angle.
Effective Use: For size attributes that are difficult to represent visually, such as weight, “In Scale” images can be combined with descriptive text to illustrate the attribute for the user. This approach ensures that users have a clear and accurate understanding of the product’s dimensions and other relevant size-related features.
How can “In Scale” images double as “Lifestyle” images, and what additional benefit does this provide to users?
Doubling as “Lifestyle” Images: “In Scale” images can also excite users about the product by showing both the product’s size and how it can fit into a user’s lifestyle. For example, an image of a model taking a portable Bluetooth speaker out of her purse at a party.
Additional Benefit: This type of image not only provides a sense of the product’s size but also demonstrates its practical use and context in real-life scenarios. This helps users envision how the product can be integrated into their own lives, enhancing their emotional connection to the product and increasing the likelihood of purchase.
How can “In Scale” images support descriptive text, and why are they particularly useful for user experience on product pages?
Support for Descriptive Text: “In Scale” images can effectively support text descriptions of products labeled as “ultra-compact” or “extremely portable.” A good “In Scale” image helps users grasp the product’s size without needing to rely solely on product descriptions or specifications.
User Experience Benefits:
Ease of Understanding: Users can quickly and easily understand a product’s size through images rather than reading through long descriptions or specs.
Efficiency: Viewing an image is faster than reading text, making the product evaluation process more efficient.
Reduced Cognitive Load: Images reduce the strain on users by requiring less information processing compared to text-heavy pages.
User Preference: Users generally prefer images over text when viewing product pages, making “In Scale” images a more engaging and user-friendly method to convey size and other attributes.
When users’ focus on product images, they may overlook key product features if they’re only described in the product description and specifications. What is the best solution to solve this issue?
Always provide “Feature Callout” images for products. Consider providing more “Feature Callout” Images for complex product types (e.g., appliances compared to simpler product types (e.g., cosmetics)
