where to use large graphics (e.g. image maps)

[LaVonna Funkhouser <lffunkhouser -at- HALNET -dot- COM>]

Simon North wrote the following excellent advice to the
current thread of Re: WWW long or short.

>Think of your poor reader. There is nothing more annoying than having
>to wait ages for a page to download - only to discover that it wasn't
>interesting after all. So, my advice is keep it short and - contrary
>to the current trend - don't put a major graphic at the top of the
>page(s). Better still, offer the reader the option of a text only
>version.

I'd like more discussion on this from Simon and others
involved in public Web pages.  What do you think of image maps?
They seem so spiffy, and they show off the author's skill, but
as a Web user, I get really annoyed when sites like
http://www.microsoft.com/    or
http://www.atlanta.olympic.org/
depend so heavily upon large graphics.  They are often totally
uninformative for the first minute or two; you'd think these
large organizations would know better!

The downside is that I'm currently designing my company's
home page, and I think my boss really likes large image maps.
So, the meat of my question is this:  Where is it appropriate to
use a 20K image map?

LaVonna
  LaVonna F. Funkhouser           Immediate Past President, OK Chapter
  lffunkhouser -at- halnet -dot- com         Program Manager, 1995 Region 5 Conf.
  COREStaff Communication Svcs.   Society for Technical Communication

  My opinions do not officially represent anyone other than little ol' me.