Carousel slides are a great way to convey lots of information to website users without having to have a cluttered homepage. Being able to showcase your products and services in this way, on the face of things, looks like a huge benefit and one which many millions of website owners have taken advantage of. But the painful truth is that the vast majority are neglecting them and their potential.
The majority of carousel slides on websites have navigation arrows either side and small dots at the bottom showing the user’s progress through the slideshow but without any relevance to what each of those slides means. Whereas many website designers will actively ensure that the menu structure around the rest of their website is meaningful and informative, slideshows and carousels get constantly neglected.
Simply adding descriptive, meaningful labels will show the user what is on each of the slides and give them an incentive to click through and view the slide for themselves. Simply scrolling through ‘just in case’ is something which users just don’t do. In fact, only 1% of users click carousel slides. That hit rate could be hugely improved if descriptive labels were added to the slides instead of ambiguous and meaningless arrows and dots.
Clear, visible navigation is a must on every other area of your website, so why neglect your carousel slides? Many studies show that carousels fail, but this is not simply because of their inherent nature — it’s because they are being mis-used. If you use carousel slides on your website and want to make the most of them and have them actually work for you, why not give us a call? We’ll be able to advise you on the best ways to make your website do its job properly.
