8 replies to this topic

[cre8pc]

An article caught my eye -
5 Big Usability Mistakes Designers Make on Carousels

I've designed a few local sites that include photos in the form of carousels. I've tried various types over the years and really dislike them. None do what I want and all of them have UX issues.

I'd like to find a photo carousel that allows user controls, increases and decreases size if desired, rotates if possible (like real estate rooms), has a way to add the description easily and allows the designer to make changes without having to resort or mess up the entire thing.

Any ideas for BOTH Wordpress and regular HTML/PHP sites?

Also, as users, what are your likes and dislikes about carousel usability?

<<<Please note: I did not edit this post - I hit the edit button in mistake and it would not allow me to cancel.>>>

Edited by iamlost, 29 January 2012 - 08:07 PM.
PEBKAC

[EGOL]

I agree with the problems that people have with this type of presentation.

That's why I would rather give visitors a huge page of thumbnails that look similar to google image search results. If you have great images a presentation like that should have relevant visitors salivating to view a large number of your images.

[DonnaFontenot]

I'd like to find a photo carousel that allows user controls, increases and decreases size if desired, rotates if possible (like real estate rooms), has a way to add the description easily and allows the designer to make changes without having to resort or mess up the entire thing.

Any ideas for BOTH Wordpress and regular HTML/PHP sites?

LOL, you don't ask for much, do ya Kim?

[cre8pc]

Heh. They say I'm a dreamer....

[iamlost]

I only use a custom carousel - and it was a reel pita to get to work cross browser without javascript (except for IE6 and earlier) - because I couldn't find one that met my requirements, including adding captions and/or descriptions on enlargement and meeting site accessibility requirements.

The only thing where it might be lacking is that it only increases a selected image to one larger size because of the carousel container, although if you enlarge the viewport it will enlarge the image et al accordingly as well to the page's set max.

Any ideas for BOTH Wordpress and regular HTML/PHP sites?

What's a Wordpress?

That's why I would rather give visitors a huge page of thumbnails that look similar to google image search results.

I find that the mass thumbnail look looks busy/cluttered and take longer to load. Of course how you are using the images as content may well make one or another approach the better solution.

I like how the carousel container keeps everything neat and easy to manage within a page layout. How do you handle enlarging a thumbnail...as a pop up or as another page window?

[EGOL]

How do you handle enlarging a thumbnail...as a pop up or as another page window?

I don't hesitate to give them a page with a hundred thumbnails... most visitors will click on them and be taken to a new page. It looks like Google image search but takes you straight to the page instead of loading the page with an image window above it.

[iamlost]

EGOL, I'm missing something and it sounds like it might be interesting

I understand the page of GI search like thumbnails...what I'm not clear about is takes you straight to the page...do you collect your site images and use them as a search vehicle? Or...?

[EGOL]

Let's say that I have a large collection of landscape photos and each photo is displayed full size on a page with a short description.

I make an index page of landscape scenes and populate it with thumbnail-size images. When a person clicks on a thumbnail-size image he is taken to the page where the full-size image is displayed.

I find that when I have a big page of thumbnail images that I often get 4x more clicks than visitors. (This click data is from CrazyEgg.)

I assume that visitors open multiple pages into tabs.

Different types of images get different response rates from visitors. I am sure that some subjects or some photographers will get more or fewer clicks than others.

Edited by EGOL, 30 January 2012 - 11:08 AM.

[iamlost]

Thank you.