In her article, “Rethinking the Slideshow: Be the Hero of Your Next Web Design Project,” Carie Fisher explains why users don’t like slideshows, why designers and developers continue to use them, and how we can improve the design trend.
Slideshows, also called carousels or slides, have been a popular trend in web design for quite a while. Even popular frameworks, like Bootstrap, feature carousel components. The ability to showcase multiple large images within a single space seems like the perfect answer to limited space on web pages. However, research shows that users don’t like slideshows.
As explained in the article, there are multiple reasons why slideshows aren’t “good” web design, including:
- Users don’t make it past the first page of slideshows.
- Eye-tracking tests show that users don’t spend much time looking at slideshows.
- Slideshows have poor accessibility.
- On mobile devices, slideshows can decrease page loading speeds.
Fisher’s article contains several other points about the effectiveness of slideshows, along with the research to back up her critique. This is a well-written and researched article that every web designer and developer should read!