I have A/B tested carousels extensively at my previous job. What I found was that even after a user interacted with the controls, meaning they specifically chos

I have A/B tested carousels extensively at my previous job. What I found was that even after a user interacted with the controls, meaning they specifically chose to see subsequent slides, they still clicked the first slide at nearly the same rate as those who never interacted at all (tested with auto slide on and off and variations of the carousels). Intrigued by the finding, I started doing different sorts of the slides (random, most recently added, oldest, etc.) and found no statistical difference. I never had time to figure out why, though, as I took a new position somewhere else. I have a strong suspicion that users see first as most important, though.