Remember the last time your coworker cracked a joke during a conference call and the entire room erupted in hysterics? How about the time your team successfully completed a project, and one member turned slightly to the left, giving a big smile and thumbs up to some unseen entity?
When was the last time your tablet screen suddenly regurgitated a holographic of marketing buzzwords?
These scenarios sound like something out of a fever dream, right? Yet we encounter them daily in the form of stock photography online.
And they’re ruining your visitors’ user experience (UX).
These staged, sterile, and stale images are meant to serve as easily-accessible visual aides for websites. But if none of the described situations are ringing a bell for you, they probably won’t for your customers. Which can be a BIG problem for industries that value personal connections – like legal and medical practices, travel agencies, and car dealerships.
There are myriad reasons why stock photos should be high on the “things not to do” website checklist, but here are three of the most compelling: