The carousel is a UI design element that displays sets of elements that users can scroll through. It can be made up of images, videos texts, or a mix of these. A carousel is used in order to optimize the web and app design. The design element displays collections of media elements such as images and videos slide-by-slide creating a cyclic view for the users. The purpose of a UX/UI design carousel catch the user’s attention and suggest when more content can be discovered by potential users.
For a carousel UI to work appropriately each slide needs to let the potential users know that the next screen waist for them, or when the screens have reached the end. The design element needs to display indications for the users and let them know that additional information is available. An Instagram carousel is a good example of what a UX/UI design carousel looks like. Instagram carousel is a design element that encloses more than a photo post or video and gives the users the ability to see the entire post by swiping throughout the carousel.
A UX/UI design carousel brings great advantages when introduced in a web or app design as more information can occupy the same amount of space. It helps create a more clean design and offers the opportunity to add additional information when there is no extra space available. However, a great setback when adding a carousel to a web or app design is the eventuality of potential users not seeing the extra information exposed in the carousel. When scrolling through a web or app design, users usually don’t spend too much time on small details causing the possibility of missing the content that is displayed in a carousel. So, when designing a web or app design take into account the possibility of overlooking the carousel and do not include mandatory elements or content on the secondary screen of the design element.
Types of Carousels in UI/UX Design
There are a few types of carousels that we can find on websites and apps.
Image Carousels: One of the most commonly used types of carousels is the image one. The main reason for its huge popularity in web design is that it suits most website and app layouts.
Video Carousels: Video carousels are great choices when we are looking for a more complex design. They allow us to integrate more complex, immersive design elements which can create a more interesting user experience.
Testimonial Sliders: Testimonial sliders have a marketing value because they showcase positive customer journeys. These carousels have an interactive aspect that can increase website engagement.
Hover Galleries: This type of carousel provides web pages with a sleek module due to the effortless change between slides whenever a user hovers the cursor over an image. It works best with larger displays due to the powerful bigger images.
3D Image Carousels: 3D Image carousels are one of the most effective strategies for giving a website or an app more dynamism.
Car Sliders: This carousel-type component is meant to showcase related blocks of content to users so they can simultaneously view different content.
When to Use - Website Carousel Best Practices
There are many cases in which carousels can be implemented.
One of the most common cases in which we would create a carousel for a web page is when we have multiple items to display. In this way, we can help users focus on singular elements at a time so they do not get confused. Displaying more information can also create a design that is overwhelming and gives of the impression of a cluttered design. So, a carousel can help you create a design that is clean and still uses all the extra information you desire.
Carousels are implemented for items that are related in one way or another, not for items that do not share common traits. Use UI carousel when only exposing information that is relevant and related in order to avoid confusion.
We use carousels for visual elements - that means, implementing a carousel for non-visual elements such as paragraphs would not be suitable. You can use carousels when explaining the way a product works, when enumerating the steps of a procedure, or when adding the product photos from a new item on your website.
In general, we should create carousels whenever we want to improve user experience by providing beautiful and intuitive visuals.
Visibility and Accessibility. Carousel items should be visible regardless of the device the user is accessing the page from. Besides this, the images or videos must be adapted to the text so that it is easy to read.
Simplicity. A common design principle is simplicity - it is more important to get the message across than just presenting beautiful visuals. Carousels should generally be simple, yet impactful. Choose the colors appropriately and make sure that the design element that you use can be seen.
Limits. We should avoid overusing carousels per page, so it is preferred to limit the number of them and only keep the ones that really enhance user experience.
Clarity. It is important that users can easily distinguish where a carousel begins and ends, as well as how many screens are left available to scroll through. Make sure that users can observe when a carousel UI is integrated into your design and let them know that they have more information available in the design element.
Use the Carousel UI Element in Your UI/UX Design With uinkits
Our uinkits system is a Figma Design System and UI Kits that include UI components that allow you, as a UI UX designer, to create your design products as quickly as pressing a button. You can find carousels and everything you need to create the perfect product design in Figma – all in just a few clicks. All you have to do is take the UI design component you need, and you’re ready to use it in your designs!
So, get your uinkits package and start designing now!
