If it was up to me, I wouldn’t put a carousel on any of the websites I manage. Most of the research I’ve read indicates that they’re ineffective, and a lot of the time they’re not accessible.
The problem is, we don’t deploy carousels for the sake of our users — real users, I mean — but purely to placate some senior bod high up in the organisation, or an opinionated comms professional who deems them essential.
Years ago I proposed a new homepage which did away with a carousel altogether, replacing it with a dynamic search box that would bump users straight off to the information they came for. But though I argued my case forcefully based on available evidence, that proposal was a step too far for my superiors.
Unfortunately, many service managers are fixated with the notion that websites must be whizzy. My job is to attempt to bring them back down to earth, pointing out that by law our first obligation is to deliver accessible and inclusive content. Contrary to their misguided ambitions, our job is to provide services that are simple to use.
So here I am wrestling with the carousel once again (yes, Sunday night, my bad), trying to strike the balance between the demands of the organisation and the actual needs of our users. I have a more accessible prototype running locally on my development machine — keyboard navigable, survives zooming in to 400% — but really I’d just like to jettison the whole damn thing.
I could raise it at team brief in the morning, but in truth, we’ll just go round in circles. You’re only an expert when people agree with you. The task ahead is one of compromise. We’ll never get rid of these anti-patterns, so we just have to try to fix them as best we can. Yes, and that’s exactly why I’m working on a Sunday evening, unpaid. Just trying to make things better.
Last modified: 22 September 2024
