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I don't wish to engage in standard HN negativity, but I'd like to suggest that you should probably don't want to use a carousel at all most of the time. From t

I don't wish to engage in standard HN negativity, but I'd like to suggest that you should probably don't want to use a carousel at all most of the time. From the user's perspective, a carousel is just a random image. You'll get more conversions if you choose the best image instead of a random one. http://www.bayesianwitch.com/blog/2014/carouselsarebadforconversions.html http://www.bayesianwitch.com/blog/2014/carouselsarebadforcon...

Touche 13y ago
Carousel's have uses outside of image viewers. For example, every mobile application is essentially a bunch of views in a carousel.
- wlesieutre 13y ago
  The views in mobile apps are typically organized as a tree instead of a circle and require user interaction to move between them instead of cycling themselves. I wouldn't call them carousels any more than I'd call gmail a carousel because you move between views of different messages.
thekenwheeler 13y ago
While I agree with you in terms of adding important or lengthy content to a carousel, there are times when using one is the best way to do it. Product recommendations on e-commerce sites, Alternate images of products, galleries on mobile, etc... Plus, good UX or not, I haven't had a design hit my DropBox in over 5 years that hasn't had a carousel in it. So if you have to use one, use this one.
adrianoconnor 13y ago
Carousels have their place, but I agree, not on a conversion page. Also, never create a carousel that randomly shuffles between images. If an image is worth showing, show it and let the visitor see it without changing it half way through. The number of time's I've thought 'oh, that looks interesting' only for the interesting thing to disappear... bad idea.
psychometry 13y ago
I honestly can't think of an instance where a carousel is the best UI element to use, yet everyone requests them. Why?
- hockley 13y ago
  Internal Department Head You Can't Say No To: "We need our campaign on the front page next month." Website Manager: "Okay, we'll put you in the carousel."
  - kstop 13y ago
    Not enough upvotes in the world.
- nollidge 13y ago
  Because UI concerns don't always (or even usually) drive requirements.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
  - onion2k 13y ago
    I've been designing UIs as a web developer for about 15 years, for many years exclusively in ecommerce, and in every test I've done a product carousel performs worse than a product grid. Users prefer to see all the recommendations at once. Every single time I've seen one implemented it's been a result of a design decision (avoiding long scrolling pages usually) rather than a data-driven UX decision.
- ollysb 13y ago
  I think it's safe to say they're pretty useful for artists and photographers to show collections of their work.
  - shanacarp 13y ago
    edgecase
ig1 13y ago
The maths looks wrong; the distribution of clicks is only relevant if the total number of clicks stays the same. Essentially a carousel gives you a "second-bite" at your customer, i.e. the second image is a chance to convert those customers who haven't already been converted by the first image. Imagine you have two images one which converts at 40% and one which converts at 20% - but each image converts completely different groups; by carouseling the images you could end up with 40%+20% conversion. In practice you won't because of overlaps, drop-off from people who never see the second image, etc. but it's definitely possible to exceed the maximum conversion of an individual image. (obviously you should A/B test for your circumstances)
- yummyfajitas 13y ago
  Sure, anything could happen. As Shana says: It is totally possible that there are edge cases where we are wrong. While we’ve personally performed split tests between carousels and their elements and always came up with an individual slide (rather than the whole carousel) as the highest revenue generating source, it is possible that there will be some cases where a carousel is better for conversions. To go with your example, assuming each group has 50%, it's still tough. The actual conversion rate of the carousel in your example will be T x 60% + (1-T) x 30%, where T is the fraction of users who actually wait for the second image. Some simple algebra suggests that for this to exceed 40%, you'll need T > 1/3.
  - ig1 13y ago
    The problem with your calculation it assumes that people who are likely to get converted by the first image wait around for the second image and get "unconverted". A good intuitive way to think about it is this: if you're only showing the second carousel image to people who the first image failed to convert then there's zero down-side. In practice there are some users who would convert if shown the first image for longer who you'll lose by rotating to another image, but that's what you need to measure to decide if it's worth having a carousel.
    - shanacarp 13y ago
mbesto 13y ago
Highly relevant: http://shouldiuseacarousel.com/ http://shouldiuseacarousel.com/
- morganherlocker 13y ago
  That is especially effective when you get towards the last few slides and it auto-switches before you are done reading.
webwright 13y ago
Add'l data on how carousels don't convert. "Don’t Use Automatic Image Sliders or Carousels, Ignore the Fad" http://conversionxl.com/dont-use-automatic-image-sliders-or-carousels-ignore-the-fad/ http://conversionxl.com/dont-use-automatic-image-sliders-or-...
vassvdm 13y ago
I agree for the most part. I guess the Airbnb landing page is an obvious counterexample. I'm confident that they A/B tested it to death. In that particular case the transitions are very subtle and don't detract from the CTA (even though it's in the middle of the carousel images). The images themselves serve the purpose of "showing, not telling" what the product is.
captainmuon 13y ago
Not everybody is concerned about "conversions". If I'd get to redo the public website of our research institute, I'd add a carousel, because it looks cool and modern, and it allows you to showcase the work of different people without favoring one person by giving them the "best space". And even if you have something to sell, it might be valuable to "wow" your potential customer, and to give them the impression that you are "cool" and "modern" and "state of the art" and have moving pictures of happy pretty professionals on your site. Or, it might be better to have a big "BUY" or "DOWNLOAD" button in that space. You can't generally say what's better for all use cases IMHO. You got to understand your visitors/customers, do testing if you can afford it, and so on. Also, the main reason why carousels suck in my opinion, the bad usability (no touch, unclear if clicking moves to the next picture or opens another page, not clear how to move to other pictures) seems to be fixed nicely buy this script.
- shanacarp 13y ago
  I used to volunteer with my local college club. During that time, the school won a webby. Probably one of the most undisclosed facts about the schools website: beyond students using it, they probably tested the hell out of "does it drive donations" Even nonprofits* have conversions to worry about - they take in donor and grant money. Making sure the site is clear in order to do so is way more important than cool *I can actually name a few nonprofits that do not have this model, but thats because they are secretly for profits if you look through their budgets. They tend to exist in sectors providing services on behalf of the federal government to say the disabled. They don't need to worry about conversions.
  - taigeair 13y ago
    links to show?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
47 13y ago
It depends on what you are using the carousel for. For example if you are showing let say showing a set of different products, carousel is a bad choice. Because it is dependent on interaction by user or the possibility the user stays on the page long enough for carousal to change image. But if you are on the product page and viewing different angles of the same product. The bigger the image better the conversion. In this case we have found carousal can help. You still can not use carousal without thumbnails. Thumbnails create 3 times more interaction compared to Carousal. So to summarize for us at Bryght following is true. Carousal Only < Thumbnails Only < Both Carousal + Thumbnails Here is the example of product page we are currently experimenting: http://www.bryght.com/product/854/long-island-brown-leather-left-sectional http://www.bryght.com/product/854/long-island-brown-leather-...
- reledi 13y ago
  As long as the carousel doesn't auto-rotate, I could see a carousel + thumbnails working very well for a product gallery. The example on your site does it well.
err4nt 13y ago
I use a carousel to display a list of current games on a fantasy sports website and this script looks better than what we're currently using! Carousels as a component are useful for a lot more than just homepage slideshows :)

Touche 13y ago

Carousel's have uses outside of image viewers. For example, every mobile application is essentially a bunch of views in a carousel.

wlesieutre 13y ago
The views in mobile apps are typically organized as a tree instead of a circle and require user interaction to move between them instead of cycling themselves. I wouldn't call them carousels any more than I'd call gmail a carousel because you move between views of different messages.

thekenwheeler 13y ago

While I agree with you in terms of adding important or lengthy content to a carousel, there are times when using one is the best way to do it. Product recommendations on e-commerce sites, Alternate images of products, galleries on mobile, etc... Plus, good UX or not, I haven't had a design hit my DropBox in over 5 years that hasn't had a carousel in it. So if you have to use one, use this one.

adrianoconnor 13y ago

Carousels have their place, but I agree, not on a conversion page. Also, never create a carousel that randomly shuffles between images. If an image is worth showing, show it and let the visitor see it without changing it half way through. The number of time's I've thought 'oh, that looks interesting' only for the interesting thing to disappear... bad idea.

psychometry 13y ago

I honestly can't think of an instance where a carousel is the best UI element to use, yet everyone requests them. Why?

hockley 13y ago
Internal Department Head You Can't Say No To: "We need our campaign on the front page next month." Website Manager: "Okay, we'll put you in the carousel."
- kstop 13y ago
  Not enough upvotes in the world.
nollidge 13y ago
Because UI concerns don't always (or even usually) drive requirements.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- onion2k 13y ago
  I've been designing UIs as a web developer for about 15 years, for many years exclusively in ecommerce, and in every test I've done a product carousel performs worse than a product grid. Users prefer to see all the recommendations at once. Every single time I've seen one implemented it's been a result of a design decision (avoiding long scrolling pages usually) rather than a data-driven UX decision.
ollysb 13y ago
I think it's safe to say they're pretty useful for artists and photographers to show collections of their work.
- shanacarp 13y ago
  edgecase

ig1 13y ago

The maths looks wrong; the distribution of clicks is only relevant if the total number of clicks stays the same. Essentially a carousel gives you a "second-bite" at your customer, i.e. the second image is a chance to convert those customers who haven't already been converted by the first image. Imagine you have two images one which converts at 40% and one which converts at 20% - but each image converts completely different groups; by carouseling the images you could end up with 40%+20% conversion. In practice you won't because of overlaps, drop-off from people who never see the second image, etc. but it's definitely possible to exceed the maximum conversion of an individual image. (obviously you should A/B test for your circumstances)

yummyfajitas 13y ago
Sure, anything could happen. As Shana says: It is totally possible that there are edge cases where we are wrong. While we’ve personally performed split tests between carousels and their elements and always came up with an individual slide (rather than the whole carousel) as the highest revenue generating source, it is possible that there will be some cases where a carousel is better for conversions. To go with your example, assuming each group has 50%, it's still tough. The actual conversion rate of the carousel in your example will be T x 60% + (1-T) x 30%, where T is the fraction of users who actually wait for the second image. Some simple algebra suggests that for this to exceed 40%, you'll need T > 1/3.
- ig1 13y ago
  The problem with your calculation it assumes that people who are likely to get converted by the first image wait around for the second image and get "unconverted". A good intuitive way to think about it is this: if you're only showing the second carousel image to people who the first image failed to convert then there's zero down-side. In practice there are some users who would convert if shown the first image for longer who you'll lose by rotating to another image, but that's what you need to measure to decide if it's worth having a carousel.
  - shanacarp 13y ago

mbesto 13y ago

Highly relevant: http://shouldiuseacarousel.com/ http://shouldiuseacarousel.com/

morganherlocker 13y ago
That is especially effective when you get towards the last few slides and it auto-switches before you are done reading.

webwright 13y ago

Add'l data on how carousels don't convert. "Don’t Use Automatic Image Sliders or Carousels, Ignore the Fad" http://conversionxl.com/dont-use-automatic-image-sliders-or-carousels-ignore-the-fad/ http://conversionxl.com/dont-use-automatic-image-sliders-or-...

vassvdm 13y ago

I agree for the most part. I guess the Airbnb landing page is an obvious counterexample. I'm confident that they A/B tested it to death. In that particular case the transitions are very subtle and don't detract from the CTA (even though it's in the middle of the carousel images). The images themselves serve the purpose of "showing, not telling" what the product is.

captainmuon 13y ago

Not everybody is concerned about "conversions". If I'd get to redo the public website of our research institute, I'd add a carousel, because it looks cool and modern, and it allows you to showcase the work of different people without favoring one person by giving them the "best space". And even if you have something to sell, it might be valuable to "wow" your potential customer, and to give them the impression that you are "cool" and "modern" and "state of the art" and have moving pictures of happy pretty professionals on your site. Or, it might be better to have a big "BUY" or "DOWNLOAD" button in that space. You can't generally say what's better for all use cases IMHO. You got to understand your visitors/customers, do testing if you can afford it, and so on. Also, the main reason why carousels suck in my opinion, the bad usability (no touch, unclear if clicking moves to the next picture or opens another page, not clear how to move to other pictures) seems to be fixed nicely buy this script.

shanacarp 13y ago
I used to volunteer with my local college club. During that time, the school won a webby. Probably one of the most undisclosed facts about the schools website: beyond students using it, they probably tested the hell out of "does it drive donations" Even nonprofits* have conversions to worry about - they take in donor and grant money. Making sure the site is clear in order to do so is way more important than cool *I can actually name a few nonprofits that do not have this model, but thats because they are secretly for profits if you look through their budgets. They tend to exist in sectors providing services on behalf of the federal government to say the disabled. They don't need to worry about conversions.
- taigeair 13y ago
  links to show?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

47 13y ago

It depends on what you are using the carousel for. For example if you are showing let say showing a set of different products, carousel is a bad choice. Because it is dependent on interaction by user or the possibility the user stays on the page long enough for carousal to change image. But if you are on the product page and viewing different angles of the same product. The bigger the image better the conversion. In this case we have found carousal can help. You still can not use carousal without thumbnails. Thumbnails create 3 times more interaction compared to Carousal. So to summarize for us at Bryght following is true. Carousal Only < Thumbnails Only < Both Carousal + Thumbnails Here is the example of product page we are currently experimenting: http://www.bryght.com/product/854/long-island-brown-leather-left-sectional http://www.bryght.com/product/854/long-island-brown-leather-...

reledi 13y ago
As long as the carousel doesn't auto-rotate, I could see a carousel + thumbnails working very well for a product gallery. The example on your site does it well.

err4nt 13y ago

I use a carousel to display a list of current games on a fantasy sports website and this script looks better than what we're currently using! Carousels as a component are useful for a lot more than just homepage slideshows :)