
No clutter

Focus on one element
Have an image feature just a single main element. Similar to how you won't be able to easily see details in a small image, having multiple elements in the image will make it harder to figure out what the image is. As a full size image on a laptop, you can easily make out multiple elements, but a thumbnail-size image, not so much. For example, instead having an image of a person kicking a ball into a goal (too many elements: head-to-toe person, ball, goal), crop the image so that it's only a zoomed in shot of the foot kicking a ball (one main element: ball being kicked). The same idea is expressed (kicking a goal, scoring, winning, etc.) but is a lot easier to see and comprehend the image on a mobile device.Use subtle textures (or solid colors)

Contrast

Be square

Optimizing images for mobile devices
Mobile will only continue to become more and more prevalent, so it's important to have images — which is a very prominent thing people will see — optimized for mobile devices. Hopefully these lessons from mobile-optimized album covers provide some useful insights. Make sure your images don't have clutter via a bunch of small details, that the image focuses on one element, that the textures are subtle or that there's simply solid colors, that the contrast is higher, and that the image aspect ratio is as square as possible so that it's as mobile-viewing friendly as possible. With that in hand, make your images look great on mobile devices. Written exclusively for WDD by Oleg Mokhov, the world's most mobile electronic musician and web + visual design enthusiast. He makes music that's a cross between Four Tet and Aphex Twin. Connect with him Do you think about mobile devices when choosing images for your designs? Do you start with mobile, or adjust desktop-friendly images to suit devices? Let us know in the comments below.Oleg Mokhov
Oleg Mokhov is the world's most mobile electronic musician and web + visual design enthusiast. He makes music that's a cross between Four Tet and Aphex Twin. Connect with him
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