Tuesday, January 26, 2016

website design - Do users recognize "slideable" areas with dots as indicators for multiple images?


Are more explicit visual cues, like the arrow buttons in "Variant 2", necessary to convey that there are more images available and the user can reach those by swiping left or right?


Or are users already used to dots like these as indicators?


mockup


download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups



EDIT: I completely forgot to mention that this question is mainly about mobile displays. The desktop version would use something else than those dots.
So the main interaction is supposed to be swiping.


It's about fashion product presenation of ONE product, like Adidas or Nike would do, so it's not about homepage carousels. So the images are all related and I think users already expect multiple pictures of the product.



Answer



Arrows serve as a signifier that the carousel contains multiple images, so if you remove them, you may run the risk of users not noticing the slide indicator dots underneath. Removing the dots is risky too, as it is a clear indication to the user of how many slides are in the carousel, as well as their current position in the set.


I personally would also not make the arrows only visible on hover for two reasons. One is because that this limits their discoverability, and secondly because tablets and mobile devices have no support for hover functionality, so they would never see the arrows.


There are other alternatives to arrows too - you can show a 'peek' of the next slide which can act as a good tool to show users that there is something to come.


This article has some more good tips about carousel use, and is very recent: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/07/ten-requirements-for-making-home-page-carousels-work-for-end-users/


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