Saturday, January 17, 2009

Things They Should UNinvent: slideshow-style top 10 lists

A lot of websites, especially magazine-type websites, present typical list-style articles (Top 10 Trendiest Cheeses! Eight Ways to Redecorate for Under $2!) as slideshows. You click on the link, it opens in a new window, you see a photo and blurb of the first item on the list, then you have to click the "Next" link (or wait for the slideshow to play automatically) to see what's next. For every item in the list, you have to click a link and wait for the page to load.

This is inconvenient! When I'm looking at a list-style article, I'm either looking to see what's on the list, or I'm skimming the list items to see if it's worth reading the whole article. The slideshow set-up makes it impossible to do this, which frustrates me and makes me less likely to read the article. The worst offender I saw was a top 100 list, with one item per slide. I forget which list exactly it was, precisely because the slideshow structure made it not worth my while to read.

If it is absolutely necessary to present your list as a slideshow, also include the list itself in text form (wwithout the blurbs or photos) so we can skim it briefly and see if the article is worth all the clicking.

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