Carousels! Why are they bad UI?
- Started
- Last post
- 15 Responses
- monospaced2
I can't think of a single thing not to like about a nice carousel.
- Hahahaha. But really I have no problem with a carousel on a site. I use them if the content is good.monospaced
- iCanHazQBN2
I don't understand all the latest backlash against carousels. I think they're very functional.
- Nathan_Adams2
IIRC, there's been a few studies which have shown that they're pretty ineffective at exposing additional content. There's a massive drop-off in the click rates as soon as you move past the first slide.
However, a lot of that could be down to design decisions. Too many sites use carousels as a kind of junk drawer, where the designer couldn't decide how to present multiple bits of content so it was just easier to dump it all in a carousel. That is never going to work well.
If it's intended to be more of an ambient thing (auto playing through a set of images for instance), with no intention of it being a primary navigation tool, I think they're fine.
- Random load placement helps solve the issue of exposure to the only first slide content.ETM
- showpony1
A few things to consider:
Often, carousels are at the top of a page, where the "most important" stuff is usually contained. Most viewers won't see the second, third etc. images, which is counter to them being important.
In a mobile-first approach, I think you should default to vertical scrolling. Having a carousel usually means that the user either has to swipe horizontally (not ideal) or (worse yet) click right/left arrows.
Carousels were originally made to account to "the fold." The fold isn't really a thing anymore, especially when you consider mobile and touch devices. In other words, it's solving a problem that doesn't really exist anymore. There's plenty of articles that show that users don't mind scrolling.
Most progressive disclosure patterns are losing support (even hamburger navs). There's tons of data that has shown that users just don't engage with these patterns as optimally as they could. Instead, aim to provide users with "information scents," disclosed bits of content that hint to additional content.
- Peter1
"How much for the horse tornado?
Sir, that's a carousel.
I must have it."
- utopian0
I have seen a lot well designed carousels and a lot of poorly designed one. In my experience most designers like them and most copywriters hate them. And of course the UX experts hate them in general.
- mg330
I'm glad I moved well beyond having never-ending conversations with clients about carousels. Was a few years back, but it was ridiculous how extensively people could talk about the nav used for them, what the delay was for auto transitions.
Worse, they're all so stupid easy to implement these days, yet I worked with dev building that stuff from scratch at a high cost to clients. Insanity.
- Total insanity. I can think of 5-6 clean, responsive ones right now, free for the download.ETM
- omg3
How can anyone hate the convenience of an awesome carousel? They're only bad when they are designed improperly.
For example:
1. I really hate when using the carousel, the forward or backward buttons are not instantly intuitive because they thought a cloaking feature of the buttons would be cool.
2. I really hate when I have to step through one by one through a list of tv shows (with a cable remote control) and the one tv show I wanted was at the end of the carousel.
3. It fucking pisses me off when a carousel automatically changes, and shows me something awesome, and I can't get back to that one interesting ad on Facebook.
4. When they slip in an ad in between a slideshow.
5. Stepping through a huge list of songs in iTunes in carousel mode was just silly.
6. I would hate if I couldn't control the size in which images are displayed in a Lightroom carousel.
7. Try printing a page of all the images located in a carousel. Most pages lack the ability to do this.
8. I hate when I cannot save an image within a Flickr carousel. Screen capturing is so painful sometimes.
9. Hate when I cannot use my swiping features of my mouse to move the carousel.
10. How about when a webpage automatically plays music within a carousel, but give you the option to turn it off in case you hate the music. Why did you even put music there to begin with?!
- Daithi1
http://shouldiuseacarousel.com/
Lots of good points here.
- bklyndroobeki0
Thanks you all... really great defenses against it (and for it)
Going to really think of new ways to communicate the client wants/needs when they ask about a carousel.
- prophetone0
if you must carousel, it MUST be touch-enabled
- dirtydesign0
Carousel's hide content.
I work closely with our analytics team and an astonishing number of people never even make it to a second/third slide.They probably work fine for portfolios though.
- sarahfailin0
My work's website used to have a carousel take up the entire top part of the homepage below the menu bar. I didn't even know that there was content below the carousel. All the carousel holds is stock images of smiling families. What's the point!
- formed0
I am not sure how you can lump them into one group and make a simple conclusion.
How do you show multiple images, for a single project? Scrolling endlessly vertically is ridiculous (imho, I skip sites that just generically load stuff as you scroll down).
Any good examples of alternatives?