GET RID OF THOSE SLIDERS ON THE HOME PAGE!

Toon LowetteGrid Online Publishing Consultancywww.grid.be

CAROUSELS, SLIDERS, ACCORDEONS ON THE HOME PAGE:

THEY DON’T WORK

DON’T GO WITH THE FAD

AND THIS IS WHY

• A documented case: ND.edu University of Notre Dame, Indiana, US

WHAT DO THE METRICS SHOW?

• On a sample of 315.655 pages shown• 28.928 clicks or less than 1%• Of those 84% on the 1st position, the

rest had almost no clicks

THE ND.ECU CASE

• “Fancy format” very often is not even looked at

• They look like banners, mostly

• Lower accessibility: often gone before the click

• Not enough time for the not very literate

• Not enough time for the non-native speakers

and• They irritate: visitors don’t

like things to move out of their control

WHAT DO OBSERVATIONSTEACH US?

JAKOB NIELSEN:

• Almost all of the testing I’ve managed has proven content delivered via carousels to be missed by users. Few interact with them and many comment that they look like adverts and so we’ve witnessed the banner blindness concept in full effect. Adam Fellows

• In test after test, the first thing the visitor does when coming to a page with a large carousel is scroll right past it and start looking for triggers that will move them forward with their task. Craig Kistler

• Because it moves, users automatically assume that it might be an advertisement , which makes them more likely to ignore it. Jakob Nielsen

WHAT DO EXPERTS SAY?

Usability Test question by Jakob Nielsen:

“Does Siemens have any special deals on washing machines?”

• What did the test team observe with participants who couldn’t complete the task?

Promobox:• Not been noticed• Right column, less

visible• Irrelevant content:

“Rewarding.Life.Style”

Carousel is being ignored:“No time to read”

Jakob Nielsen• Visitors have become banner-

blind• Carousels, accordeons, sliders

are conversion killers

Gerry McGovern• When it looks like an ad, it’s

being ignored• Marketing often gets in the way

of the customer’s task.

Toon Lowette:• The Internet is essentially a text

media:words guide us on the path to the completion of our task

WHAT DO THE CRITICS SAY?

• Web designers think they’re hot

• Marketing people adore them• Very often: because of a lack

of agreement on the home page priorities

• Or a lack of convincing power to get the right priorities

Does this type of meeting look familiar?

SO, WHY DO THEY EXIST?

My department is

the most important. I

HAVE to be on the home

page.

Me too

And me

Not much room, and

we’re not yet there…I’ve got an idea

A carousel!

A happy ending. But “design by committee never fails to fail”.

Carousels are effective at being able to tell people in Marketing/Senior Management that their latest idea is now on the Home Page. Lee Duddell

• If we can’t prioritize, who shall be the victim? Why not the client?

• A carousel typically is a patch for the weakness of a self-centered organization that doesn’t take the customer and his tasks seriously.

• The carousel is the set of crutches that helps Ignorance to stand up.

• Ignorance thinks to walk straight and swift, but everybody sees the crutches.

• They look cool, the crutches. But they are crutches.

HAVE A LOOK

Small numbers change colour when the next image appears. And you can pause the carousel. Why would you, since the top task on this page is ordering a railway ticket. That task is a handful already, without the diversion on the side. I prefer the railway company would improve the task. I would save time at least two times a week. And many others would too.

Coolblue is an extremely efficient web shop, taking care of customer service at all levels. Was this carousel a concession someone had to make to someone else in the company? Numbers indicate where you are, and yes, you can pause the show as well.

In this example, navigation and tasks are pushed away with content-free content (as Jakob Nielsen would say). Small images indicate the position in the carousel. The image is just a part of the big picture, not relevant at all. No pause button.

Here, the pictures under the carousel are bigger and a caption gives a clue of what follows. Good. The navigation with the top tasks is fine. However, this home page could make them more prominent.

“All about your car always just a click away” Why use a carousel for that? How do they think I got here, if not with a mouse click? Stop this marketing blah-blah. Get me to where I want! And oh, the other positions in the carousel were just as irrelevant. But beautiful.

• Offline marketing is about getting attention. Online marketing is about giving attention. says Gerry McGovern.

• In the previous slide, the site keeps on getting attention, keeps on shouting. Stop shouting, I’m already on your website. Get me what I want.

Click to move on or back in this carousel. Good. But why would I?

In this case, there was only one position in the slider. Clicking repeated the image. Pity. I badly wanted to see the cat version.

The city of Mechelen has won several awards already, and earned them. The site is efficient and task-driven. And yet, a carousel. However, with text support under the image. The dots

indicate: two positions in the carousel. Limited, nice. But why then not two still images? Allowing the curious eye to scan both?

Here, the carousel only shows mood images. No links, no text, no tasks. One third of the screen surface. This is “getting-attention-marketing”, but it only diverts attention. For two reasons: images without content, and irritating because they move.

Here, the image in the carousel changes, the link texts stay put. But not elegantly: the colour change makes the text hard to read. A couple of links are copies of the titles further on. Why?

• Show the next position only when the visitors clicks to get it

• Give useful task orientated content

• Show with words what is to be expected in the next positions

• Randomize the first position, giving all positions equal showings

• If temporarily there is only one position, don’t make it a carousel

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HAVE ONE

(OR HAVE TO HAVE)

What they do need:

• Simple navigation to the tasks

• Clear lay-out• Attention to the customer• One understandable

promotion offer• No diversion• No moving images

CLEAR HOME PAGES DON’T NEED CAROUSELS

• Identify your visitors’ top tasks and tiny tasks

• Measure how customer-centric the site is

• Measure how efficiently clients can complete tasks

• Design for successful navigation• Test, measure, tweak, test,

measure, etc.

These are the challenges that Customer Carewords helps you with.Manage the task. Not the content, not the website. The task.Facts instead of opinions.

Contact Toon Lowettetoon@grid.be - 0032 474 285 849

TASK MANAGEMENT

WITHTOON LOWETTE

AND GERRY MCGOVERN