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Imagemaps are graphic elements on web pages with clickable regions for navigation. They can be created using web development tools and linked to content within or outside the site. Hovering over sections of an image map displays the current URL. They can enhance user experience, but text links may be more suitable for some sites.
An imagemap is a graphic element that is displayed on a web page containing clickable regions to facilitate navigation. Some sites, such as wiseGEEK, use a list of links to help visitors navigate the website. Site content is linked, allowing visitors to find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible.
Other websites use image maps to accomplish navigation. The graphics are divided into regions, and each region is assigned a link to the image map. Some applications create slices of the image and each slice can have image map shortcuts assigned, while other applications allow the image map creator to drag and select a portion of the image and then assign an image map shortcut to the selected slice. Imagemap links are given hyperlinks to content within your site or even elsewhere on the Internet.
Usually web development tools, such as Adobe® Dreamweaver®, will be able to assist in creating image maps. Once the image to be used for the image map has been loaded into the environment, the user will be able to draw clickable selections around portions of the content. These selections are then assigned links just as text or full image buttons would be. When content is posted to a web server, the image map links assigned to the selected regions are clickable and will take visitors to the content referenced by the image map.
An example of a site with an image map would be at weather.gov. The weather map on the page is the image map used. When visitors hover over a state or section of the image and click, the image map redirects them to a different area of the site.
When visiting a site with an image map, one way to find out which sections of the image map point to different links is for a visitor to hover over a section of the image and take note of the browser’s status bar. As image map links change, the status bar will display the current URL for that link.
While text links can be very straightforward and simple to use and understand, image maps can create a much more enjoyable experience for a site’s visitors without too much extra effort on the part of the web designer. Some applications, such as clickable maps or photo collages, can lend themselves very easily to image maps, while other sites such as news or stock listings may be more useful by using image buttons or text links for easier navigation.
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