Slide Show

[SouthernBelle]

How do I add a slide show to my home page? Preferable one that is free. Thanks.

[vswebdesign]

I use WowSlider for my home page....

[SouthernBelle]

Thanks, I will check it out.

[vswebdesign]

There's also some very cool jQuery widgets out there: Circular, Responsive jQuery Carousel - CarouFredSel

[mondo]

We use dynamic drive for slideshows and widgets they have quite a few
We're using the conveyor belt one on ours after trying several.

[mimib]

Wow! This is a serious coincidence! I JUST bookmarked a link to a new Jakob Nielsen Alertbox article about the evils of carousels and auto-forwarding/rotating content on home pages!

I've used them in the past and have been considering adding something again to spruce up the old home page, but this article gives me pause. Jakob Nielson can be a bit of a stick-in-the-mud when it comes to flashy design elements, but he's got a lot of research and testing behind his advice.

Take a read before you install anything and see what you think.
Auto-Forwarding Carousels and Accordions Annoy Users and Reduce Visibility

Those of you who are using sliders/carousels, what are your thoughts?

-mimib

[vswebdesign]

Thanks for the article....It's interesting, but I still think carousels and sliders can be useful. However, I'll think twice about having them rotate automatically. Also, it was an interesting tid bit about banner/ad fatigue.

[mondo]

I Agree with the article observations. I dislike the auto page flip slides. It's very annoying to see a big display with info I may actually start to view suddenly disappear, I rarely wait for it to return. And some flip like every second.
I chose a conveyor style on one site and slowed it down a lot from default. It is a popular Mfgr. (7) conveyor, a sample product with logo from each with no info. 2-3 are always visible and it stops on hover, continues on mouse out. Click one and it goes to their products.

Cross Stitch/Quilting Supplies at Stitch-R-Stuff and More

Critique welcome

[mondo]

I also totally agree with ad/banner fatigue and have seen research on this even years ago that people don't even see them. We have four big county flags of our 4 ship to countries on the right nav of our 3d site and constantly have people ask 'if we ship to?' and yes, even for one of the four shown. Maybe should just use that area for spider food.

[damiencaz]

I agree. I was on a website the other day, I can't even remember what I was looking for..... but I got so frigin dizzy from the photos flying across the screen, I had to close the page. :-)