A couple of weeks ago, we launched the new Agileware website, and one of the biggest changes is right up front. We’ve ditched the usual homepage slideshow in favour of a background video with text overlay. Here’s why…

Basically, slideshows/carousels don’t work. The stats show that people really only take notice of the very first slide, and that first slide is only click-worthy if it has compelling content. In fact, the best slideshows consist of a single slide that is highly targeted to the interests of the website visitors. Need more convincing? There’s page upon page of evidence that slideshows are not effective.

Many new websites continue to feature a slideshow front and centre on the home page because it’s a flexible way to allow the website editor/content author to draw attention to the organisation’s latest campaign or news. The difficulty is that when slideshows are used for this purpose, new slide content needs to be created regularly, old slides need to be unpublished or removed from the slideshow, and the images and text on the slides needs to be strategically prepared to achieve the end goal of driving more clicks to the campaign or news content.

For organisations who don’t have the capacity to make the best use of a slideshow (ie a website editor with the time and skills to regularly update the slideshow), or who don’t regularly run campaigns or promotions, a slideshow isn’t going to deliver good design value. So when we designed our own website, we did away with it altogether. Instead, we have a background video with a text overlay to set a message about what we do and who we are. That leaves more space on the home page to highlight our portfolio of recent work, and the services we offer.

We think this is a more effective use of space. Let us know what you think!


About the author Emma rotate

VP of Client Happiness at Agileware. Emma is passionate about supporting the non-profit sector and ensuring that customer requirements are delivered.

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