
Don’t Use Automatic Image Sliders or Carousels - peeplaja
http://conversionxl.com/dont-use-automatic-image-sliders-or-carousels-ignore-the-fad/
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mschaecher
Why is this post not full of data and heatmaps to support this case? All I see
is a "conversion" expert trumpeting anecdotal and gut opinions, without any
supporting data one way or the other.

I'm not saying he is necessarily wrong, but this is an extremely broad
generalization that is not backed up with any evidence in the post itself.

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mmariani
Exactly my thought. Also another thing, here's a guy preaching not to use
carousels when his own web site has those cheesy banners that follow
scrolling. For one thing hth OP understands usability as much as the guys who
misuse carousels.

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unwind
Also, the site uses images to quote text from other sources. The credibility
of the actual content went very close to zero in my eyes, right there.

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ericdykstra
"Don't use Automatic Image Sliders or Carousels" is good advice, but it misses
the heart of the problem: don't design user interface without a purpose. If
"what is the purpose and goal of this website?" is the first question you ask
when designing a site, you should never end up with "carousel banners!"

The image slider is a classic example of user interface being built without
being designed around purpose and function. This is a shitty design paradigm
that has somehow lasted for years and years, but there will always be trendy
things to do that are extended past their original purpose.

Start with purpose, then design a user interface that meshes with those goals,
and good things will happen.

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decklin
On the contrary, I think that automatic image carousels are exactly user
interface with a purpose. They're what happens when the purpose of the website
is to be demonstrated to "stakeholders", the people who sign off on the
university budget, the people who don't use the internet and just want to get
back to running their restaurant, etc.

Normal users would go to the site to _use_ it for the purpose of finding some
bit of information; instead, in this case, another person loads it up on their
laptop or projector for the stakeholder and talks about "hey, look what we
spent your money on". The stakeholder does not actually touch the computer
running the web browser.

(...that's my theory, anyway.)

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danso
I know it's a different use case but the OP is talking about using a strong
static message and having faith in the user to scroll below the fold...all the
while as his website uses an animated popup box to fill the bottom right area
of my screen... _twice_ (on the iPad). So apparently, there's a case to be
made for some kind of obtrusive moving elements...

As someone already said, I'm inclined to agree with the OP. But there needs to
be hard data here. People often won't know what to do (I.e. scroll down below
the fold) until you flash some hint in front of their eyes. Newspapers used to
do usability studies on their print product quite often...and they always
found that a huge number of people, no matter how compelling the story, did
not turn the page. I can see a case being made that even if there is one big
thing you want to get across to the user (such as a bug sale), there are often
competing concurrent interests that would be missed below the fold. At least a
carousel gives that item/module a fighting chance to be just noticed.

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ivanvanderbyl
"People often won't know what to do" - do you have any data on that?

It is generally assumed in interaction design for web that the most
instinctive action is scrolling. The concept of there even being a fold is
also somewhat misguided, it like turning a page does not apply to a screen.

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danso
Sorry, "won't know what to do" is an inaccurate simplification of the problem.
A better way to say it is that they may be ignorant of what's
possible/happening.

Take a site like the iOS App Store (yes I know it's technically not a webpage,
but same concept)...I go there to search for apps I want. I will almost never
scroll down to the bottom because my first instinct is to hit up the search
box at the top. In the time that it takes me to type a search in, Apple could
show me up to two, maybe 3 featured projects that I otherwise did not know I
would be interested in.

Could Apple have trained me to, once I hit the ios App Store front page, to
scroll down to check out the list of featured apps and _then_ conduct a
search? Sure, but I'm at a loss as to how they could do that without
encumbering the user (i.e. putting the search box at the bottom of th epage)

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jamesmcn
If you use these things, you are a bad person and should feel bad.

Korg is a perfect example of why you shouldn't use them. All of Korg's product
images have been on rotating sliders for years. When I want to take a closer
look at how the controls or I/O ports are laid out, the last place I look is
korg.com because there is no way to make the damn things stay still.

Good design solves problems. It does not draw attention to itself.

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anigbrowl
Not only do I agree with you about these things being bad, but I was having
the exact same problem on Korg.com last night. It's very common on music gear
websites, and infuriating.

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linker3000
The company where I used to work a couple of years ago had a _big_ front page
photo slider that changed with quite a bit of vigor and it drove me mad
because it would take all focus away from other elements on the page. On a
large, wide-screen monitor it almost pulled you off your chair as your brain
followed it.

Many other staff members (and customers) also hated the slider and I pointed
this out to the relevant parties (Marketing and the MD), but they loved it and
so it stayed.

PS: I've just checked and the slider has gone - but the article headers are
now in Comic Sans. Dear god!

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flexxaeon
We can't start a crusade against sliders while Comic Sans still draws breath

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johne20
They forgot one other important reason, most of the time they thrash the CPU.
I have opened sites in a tab, with the intention of coming back later to
explore more, only to later hear my mac book fan running loudly. I immediately
shut down the tab.

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jaggederest
As a user, I'd almost always rather see the same content stacked on the page
i.e. section 1, section 2, section 3, than in a three-part slider.

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peeplaja
Exactly! If a business puts important information/message behind 2 clicks on a
slider, that's stupid.

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ericcholis
While I don't have any metrics that correlate with the claims made in this
article, I agree with them. I find that at the very least, the user is missing
content.

I'm a fan of this homepage: <http://www.curse.com/>. It's got slider-like
elements, but the content is displayed in a very organized, not distracting
fasion. Designing above the fold is nearly irrelevant at this point. If done
correctly, the user can easily be encouraged to scroll.

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Teckla
My situation is not a common one, but image sliders / carousels really hurt
Remote Desktop / VNC / X performance, as well.

There have been a number of web sites I could not interact with because the
carousel swamped my bandwidth with the constantly changing images, when I was
accessing a machine remotely.

When that happens, I have no choice but to close the tab and not navigate back
to the web site...or visit it later, non-remotely, if I bother going back at
all.

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michaelwww
They make me tense. I look at the TheDailyBeast daily, and hate the carousel
daily.

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lmm
Just adblock it. I know it says "ad" in the name, but there's no reason not to
block any page element that takes away from your experience.

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michaelwww
Hey thanks! I assumed adblock would remove the whole element, but it just
removes the timer js. The author of the article is right in my case; I'm
happier to be in control of my experience.

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flexxaeon
I think the slider has it's place but that place isn't everywhere. When you
want to bring exclusives, features, or trending news to the attention of the
reader above the most recent stories, it's hard to beat a slider. The problem
is, it's really only effective if the image is certain to grab attention to
it's headline. A celebrity, a disaster, a 'hero shot'...these things always
grab my attention on a slider. A Google logo, a physical product (unless it's
like a 'WTF is that?') a picture of some random startup founder I'd only
recognize by name, these things fail in the slider.

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bbx
I guess years of flash animated banner ads have made users blind to _any_
animated content on a web page.

On a side note, if you intend to implement a navigation for your slider (like
dots or page numbers), I'd highly recommend triggering it on hover and not on
click. It's really painful as a user to have to point precisely at a small 8*8
pixel area, stop moving, and then click, in order to change the slide. Hover
triggering is more indulgent in terms of precision (like on Chrome's web
store). Of course, making the area bigger is also recommended.

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tomjen3
Don't do this, unless you don't want mobile users to see your site; there is
no hover on an Iphone.

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bbx
You're right. I implicitly meant 'for desktop users'.

Ideally, a slider on mobile should be usable through swiping. It's not hard to
setup either.

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tatsuke95
The problem I have with Image Sliders is that it is often unclear how you
"backtrack" to an offer or ad you like. Then you end up clicking on something
you don't want. It's an annoying experience.

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tehwebguy
Agreed, beyond the issues the article points out I'm constantly going through
this inane checklist if I think I saw something I liked.

Starts like this: __Wait did that just say "..."? Let me go back __

Then I look for thumbnails, then BIG next / prev arrows, then small ones, then
little squares in the corner, then those microscopic circles, then if I still
can't find it I just inspect the page.

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timc3
I think for some usage they are really good and I haven't been annoyed with
them except on sites that have more generic UX problems. Also I do look at
them when I visit a site because there is often a lot of information to gather
when first reading some pages.

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nsomniact
My co founders and I had a discussion about this very issue. We all wanted the
functionality initially but realized that we hated sliders as users of other
sites. No one I know cares to re-read the slide that was missed.

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RBerenguel
I think they work well for product carousels, when you don't want to overload
the home with pictures (like in <http://www.thefancypuffin.com>)

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MojoJolo
the transition between the images is soooo nice!

