Carousel

A rotating set of slides or items shown one or a few at a time in the same space, navigated by swiping, arrows, or dots.

Why it matters

It promises more content in the same space, but attention does not rotate with the slides: interaction drops off a cliff after the first one. A carousel is often a committee decision rendered in UI — everyone’s item is “on the homepage”, and almost nobody sees items two through five.

See it

1

Slide one. Everyone sees this — it is the only slide that behaves like normal content.

2

Slide two. You clicked to get here — most visitors never do.

3

Slide three. Almost nobody arrives here. Put nothing important in a carousel’s tail.

A carousel that teaches its own lesson — notice how much work slide three asked of you.

The numbers

  • Slide 1 — receives the overwhelming share of engagement
  • Auto-advance — hostile to readers and to accessibility; avoid

Related terms

On the checklists

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