Why A Designer Should Avoid Using Automatic Carousels Or Image Sliders
Bharat | 10th September 2018
Everyone is aware of the Image Sliders or Carousels. Most of the people even like using them. But the fact is that they are killing the conversions. So, the most important question arises, if they are not impactful, then why designers are using them? Most of the people think that using carousel looks trendy. But this trendy stuff is not generating money for you. Another reason is that various managers and divisions like to see their message on the home page. In this blog, I’ll tell you why a designer should avoid using automatic carousels or what are the disadvantages of using automatic carousels.
What the study says about Automatic Carousels
A study conducted by Jakob Nielsen, a usability expert reaffirms the same in his study. They conducted a usability study in which they assigned users one of the few tasks: “Does Siemens have any special offers on washing machines?”. The available facts were on the most influential slide. The users were not able to see them – they were completely smashed by the banner blindness. This study deduces that automatic carousels are not noticed.
As per the study of Notre Dame University, merely the first slide got some reaction from the users which is not more than 1% but apart from this other slides barely got clicked. And for 1% clicks, using something which takes more than half of the page is not good.
Two vital reasons: why it’s not good to use an Automatic Carousel
Human eye reacts to any movement very quickly
A human brain has 3 coatings, we share one of our oldest parts even with reptiles. It is generally related to survival. An unexpected change in the perspective could be an event of life and death. As a consequence, the human eye reacts to a movement very quickly – incorporating continuously moving carousels and image sliders.
That’s good, correct?
Except the carousel is the one and the only thing available on your site, it is not a good option. It signifies it takes away attention from other things – the thing that really matters.
Lots of messages equal to no message
Carousels get smashed by banner blindness and many people would not give attention to them, but even those who do can not actually receive the messages.
Viewers lands on your website. Look for a message on the carousel and begin reading it. This thing won’t let a viewer even see anything. Many times the carousels are so quick that people are not even able to read them entirely, even if they wish to.
Emphasizing a sole basic message and action is a way more impactful.
