Despite the fact that carousel are well-known from their flaws, we still see them on many websites. One of the reasons are customers and marketers insisting on them, but as UX designers we should know better, and at least apply some best practices when implementing them.

Should I use a carousel?

Below you can see my favourite example why not to use carousels:

Source: shouldiuseacarousel.com

Still not convinced? Then keep in mind some of the best practices.

Best practices for carousels

• Don’t use them 😉
• Most important content should be on the first slide. Other slides are rarely clicked.
• Don’t use autoplay, it reduces visibility, annoys users and make them fail their task.
• If you really want autoplay, use it only for not important or decorative content (but in such case, maybe it’s not really useful for your users and you should remove it?).

Further reading

• https://www.creativebloq.com/accessibility-expert-warns-stop-using-carousels-7133778
• The target was the biggest item on the homepage – the first carousel item. “Nonetheless, the user failed the task.”
• “Almost all of the testing I’ve managed has proven content delivered via carousels to be missed by users. Few interact with them.” http://www.adamfellowes.com/blog/user-experience/the-rise-of-the-carosuel
• “Carousels are effective at being able to tell people in Marketing/Senior Management that their latest idea is on the Home Page. Use them to put content that users will ignore on your Home Page. Or, if you prefer, don’t use them. Ever.”
• “Carousels pose accessibility issues for keyboard and screen reader users that simply cannot be adequately addressed by markup or hacks. Carousels are this decade’s <blink> tag.”

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https://www.damianwajer.com/blog/carousel-on-your-website/

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