The Myth of Low Engagement Carousels

How to design engaging carousels

There's a myth that carousels have poor user engagement and should never be used. However, this isn’t true and is based on incomplete research. The studies that report low engagement rates in carousels all have one thing in common — they only use left and right arrows as cues for interaction.

These buttons are often too small and inconspicuous for users to see, especially on a wide display. As a result, users will easily miss them and fail to interact with the carousel.

Not only that but users who see the buttons don't have an incentive to click on them. Users click on things that pique their interest, and arrows aren't interesting because they don't contain any information scent.