I must confess to having my online roots in an older wolrd (FTP/NNTP etc) so, for me,  using images in webpages is always a bit of an arcane art.

Often “usability” gurus will espouse how important it is for web pages to have text and very few people would argue against content being king. If you have ever visited a site where they use images to display blocks of text you will know exactly what I mean (I blame MS Publisher myself).

The end result of all this, is a tendency for me to create elegant websites, with really nice layouts etc – but which are totally devoid of images. I am sure it is great for people using screen readers or lynx but what about every one else on the web. Have I gone too far in the direction of accessibility?

I have tried looking at my own browsing habits, and I notice I have a tendency to prefer sites with fewer images and less flashy content. Is this indicative of other people’s habits or is it simply a quirk of mine? Does a lack of images on a site (all other things being equal) mean the site looks boring? Should I start getting more images on sites? Are they important?