{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
    "content" : "news",
    "type" : "single",
    "title" : "Photo Carousels on Mobile Websites: Use With Caution! |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Photo Carousels on Mobile Websites: Use With Caution!",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/08/13/photo-carousels-on-mobile-websites-use-with-caution/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Photo Carousels on Mobile Websites: Use With Caution!","summary" : "You might recognize them by the user controls, if provided, that allow you to move from one newsy item to the next. They go by various names, including: carousel, slider, slideshow, banner, and gallery. Many government homepages have them. In a recent email exchange on","date" : "2014-08-13T10:00:58-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"beth-martin" : "Beth Martin"},"topics" : {
        
            "content-strategy" : "Content strategy",
            "mobile" : "Mobile",
            "research" : "Research"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2014-08-13-photo-carousels-on-mobile-websites-use-with-caution.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2014/08/2014-08-13-photo-carousels-on-mobile-websites-use-with-caution.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/08/2014-08-13-photo-carousels-on-mobile-websites-use-with-caution.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/08/2014-08-13-photo-carousels-on-mobile-websites-use-with-caution.md","slug" : "photo-carousels-on-mobile-websites-use-with-caution","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/08/13/photo-carousels-on-mobile-websites-use-with-caution/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image image-right image-right-legacy\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2014/08/250-x-244-GSA-Mobile-Site-Slider.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Screencapture of a GSA mobile site photo carousel.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eYou might recognize them by the user controls, if provided, that allow you to move from one newsy item to the next. They go by various names, including: carousel, slider, slideshow, banner, and gallery. Many government homepages have them.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a recent email exchange on the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/communities/web-content-managers/\" title=\"Web Content Managers Listserv\"\u003eWeb Content Managers listserv\u003c/a\u003e, the consensus was carousels met the internal, official need to share information. However, most agreed carousels were a necessary evil, but in general preference, were an annoyance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf your agency chooses to use them—and there are good reasons not to use carousels—know that there are drawbacks, including potentially poor results in responsive Web design, as was noted in the \u003ca href=\"https://github.com/GSA/Crowdsource-Testing-CIO.gov\"\u003eFederal CrowdSource Mobile Testing Program’s CIO.gov test\u003c/a\u003e. Our testers found the carousel was problematic for smaller devices and suggested turning the auto-scrolling off. Check out other \u003ca href=\"http://blog.clicktale.com/2014/06/16/are-web-carousels-out-7-tips-for-mobile-desktop-optimization/\"\u003etips on using carousels\u003c/a\u003e and check with your agency’s Accessibility experts for their expertise on carousels.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.faa.gov/\"\u003eFAA.gov\u003c/a\u003e uses a carousel that adjusts to screen size and has the auto-scroll turned off in order to allow the user to manually select an item; this complies with the enhanced WCAG 2.0 (accessibility) requirements. A few things to be aware of:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou’ll need to keep the content in those carousels current; otherwise your content will appear stale.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eItems in your carousel should be meaningful and useful to the intended audience, but know that there’s a very, very small likelihood of users’ following the first item, let alone anything beyond that.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYou might offer themes for each slide in the carousel or put the most recent item first.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince the “hero images” are the first things they’ll see and the first image is key, frequent visitors to your site will assume you haven’t kept up with breaking news if the same image appears day after day, week after week.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"more-carousel-tips\"\u003eMore Carousel Tips\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLimit the number of items in your carousel. Three is ideal and no more than five. Make sure you have evergreen content and enough activity to keep your editorial calendar hopping and your carousel filled. There’s a level of effort that goes in to finding images that are meaningful, relevant, and appropriate to your audience. If you have a specialized audience, they’ll see that stock photo and wonder.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e_This post originally appeared in the Mobile Tester Newsletter which is sent bi-monthly to the volunteer testers in our Federal CrowdSource Mobile Testing Program. Each newsletter contains a feature article, and interesting trends and statistics from the world of mobile testing. The program will be testing an app for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) this month. Federal Employees can sign up to \u003ca href=\"http://gsablogs.gsa.gov/dsic/2014/08/07/seeking-android-users-to-test-a-noaa-native-app-or-be-a-mobile-tester/\"\u003etest the NOAA CrowdMag App today\u003c/a\u003e!\n_\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis article is part of this month’s editorial theme on our \u003ca href=\"https://digital.gov/services/\"\u003eDigitalGov Services\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}