2.5 Image Maps Use image maps when necessary, and provide an alternate means of navigation. Image maps allow different parts of a single image to be linked to different documents on a server.
Image maps are useful, even essential, in many applications.
For example, clicking on a geographic map to select a country is a reasonable user interface style. An image map might also be used for a row of navigation icons. Design tip Don't use an image map that takes up the entire page. Image maps, however, can easily be overused, such as when the image is simply a picture of text and various phrases are links to different documents. The same result can be achieved using HTML, unless a specific style of text is desired to maintain consistency.