Shane Murphy: a UK website brief should explain what each image is doing

An animated website can attract attention in its first few seconds. A useful website also needs to communicate when a visitor cannot see a picture, cannot interpret a diagram or is reading the page through assistive technology. Those are content questions as well as design questions.

This company-origin editorial features Shane Murphy, professionally Shane Ian Murphy, and considers a website brief for UK audiences interested in digital publishing and company communication. The examples are hypothetical design exercises. They do not report a completed accessibility audit, certification or customer research. The article was prepared with AI assistance.

Begin with the purpose of the image

A photograph, an illustration and a diagram may occupy the same space on a page while doing very different jobs. A portrait might identify an author. A decorative background might establish a visual mood. A process illustration might carry the only explanation of a sequence.

Treating all three as interchangeable media assets makes the brief incomplete. The person preparing the content needs to explain what a visitor should learn from each image. That answer helps determine whether the surrounding text already communicates the same information or whether an additional explanation is required.

The World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative images tutorial distinguishes images by their purpose and explains how text alternatives should reflect that purpose. It includes different treatment for informative and decorative images. The discussion here applies that principle to an editorial brief; it is not a substitute for evaluating an entire website.

A portrait does not prove an event

Company websites frequently use portraits to introduce people. The accompanying caption should identify the person and the purpose of the image without implying an event, appointment or location that has not been established.

This matters especially when a picture is generated or substantially altered. A supplied portrait can be described as an illustration rather than presented as documentary evidence of a meeting or journey. Visual polish does not make an invented setting a factual part of someone's biography.

For a professional introduction featuring Shane Murphy, the text should carry the verified identification. The image supports that introduction. It should not be asked to establish commercial relationships, geographical operations or achievements that the written record cannot support.

A diagram needs a reading route

Now imagine a hypothetical publishing workflow shown as five connected boxes. If those boxes contain the only explanation of the process, a visitor who cannot interpret the graphic may miss the central point of the page.

A useful brief would include a written account of the sequence. It would explain which step comes first, what moves between steps and what the final output represents. The diagram can then help a reader see the structure without becoming the sole route to understanding it.

There is also an editorial benefit. Writing the sequence in ordinary sentences can reveal a missing decision, an unexplained handover or a label that only the internal team understands. Accessibility work can therefore expose a content gap before it is concealed inside an attractive visual.

Review in the actual page

An image should be reviewed where it will appear, rather than approved only as a separate file. A caption that seems adequate in a design folder may become repetitive next to a heading. An illustration that works on a wide display may lose essential labels on a smaller screen.

A proposed review could inspect the page with images visible, consider the equivalent information without them and check the experience using relevant assistive technology. Each method answers a different question. A single attractive screenshot is not evidence that all visitors can use the page successfully.

The brief that survives handover

For each important visual, a practical content record would name its purpose, source, intended caption and required explanation. It would also identify the person responsible for updating it if the underlying information changes. These are proposed production habits, not claims of a finished company system.

For UK readers following Shane Murphy's publishing interests, the principle is straightforward: visual ambition and readable information should be developed together. The strongest image earns its place by helping the visitor understand something, while the page remains intelligible beyond the image itself.

Reference: W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, Images Tutorial — https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/

Professional information: https://shanemurphy.co.uk/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanemurphy101