Using well-designed website sliders is an engaging and appealing way to display important content. They also save space on the website.
Sliders have developed into more than the early basic carousel designs. They are available in various shapes and sizes with different interaction methods.
They can make content easy on the eyes.
At other times, they serve to organize content and showcase the most important pieces. Or use them to display a lot of content within a limited screen.
Modern sliders include beautiful, high-resolution images, thoughtful copywriting, and attractive CTAs. They ensure that information is displayed at the right time and that users have enough time to take it in.
This article reviews some of the most attractive, high-quality website sliders around.
Website Sliders – What Are They and Why Are They Useful
“Slider” is a short word for a slideshow on a website. It may display as a rotating carousel showing images or products.
Web designers can integrate a slider into any kind of website. They are popular with companies that want to showcase specific content or portfolios.
A slider can help search through content fast, or narrow down options.
The main components of a slider include:
- Container – a box that holds everything in shape
- Slide – that’s where the content is
- Navigation – a tool for guiding through the slides
- Pagination – additional navigation
Website sliders also have many transition effects. They eliminate abrupt shifts between pieces of content.
Contemporary slides contain added dynamic effects, interactive features, and pioneering tricks.
Why use sliders on your website? Here are some legitimate reasons:
- Create the impression of a “hero area”.
- Prop up the overall impact of the website’s design or user experience.
- Engage users early by highlighting specific content.
- Appeal to users by displaying multiple images.
- Display more than one additional or popular offer.
- Focus users’ attention on the key message above the fold.
- Display text snippets in a tasteful way.
- Enhance content with added information within the reading flow.
- Create a promotional landing page.
- Create a powerful storytelling experience covering plenty of information.
- Put multiple CTAs on one display.
- Add text to images without using Photoshop.
- Showcase your portfolio.
Most Impressive Website Sliders
VR Arles Festival
Yannis Yannakopoulos Portfolio
The slideshow gives the artist a good foundation to show off. It includes fancy tricks and elaborate solutions.
Mouse-based interactivity gives it a cool look. The navigation is very handy and puts the user in control.
StudioChevojon
Bold Cycles Ltd.
This slider is like the name of the company – bold.
It features a tilted angle, bold images, large sans-serif font, big bullet controls, and a striking call to action. The animation zooms in and out stimulating visitors’ inclination to click the links.
Cloudforce
This is a smart and well-executed vertical slider. It creates a compact yet excellent microsite.
It presents the story behind the brand in a dapper way. Each slide depicts the company.
One of the slides even includes a carousel. The slider creates an engaging and captivating user experience.
antoni
Personal portfolio of Kelly Milligan
This slider uses a capsule approach to attract users’ attention. There is no overwhelming, full-screen drama.
The hero area consists of only a small rectangle in the middle of the page. The transition effects are exceptional and mouse interactions make the page a pleasure to explore.
O&3
O&3 decided to put a slider advertising their products, not at the top of the page but lower down. You can scroll through the images to see each one.
The slider includes context clues, such as the “View” text inviting visitors to click on the image. There are other navigational prompts too.
Belyi Ostrov
Backyard Burgers
Back Yard Burgers uses a simple slider. It helps visitors search through and choose their perfect pick from the menu.
Yarushin
Universal Orlando
This slider’s goal is to tempt and persuade viewers to visit their amusement park. The CTAs are inviting but it is the gorgeous photos that do the trick.
van Cutsem
Each slide in this animation zooms out and moves out of frame making room for the next one to move into frame and zoom in. The timer bar at the bottom indicates when the panels will switch.
The slider’s purpose is, not to promote the product but to introduce the company and invite you to find out more.
Unpigeon
Saville’s Dove Cotes
A serif font and pleasant photos showcase the quality and craftsmanship of the company’s dovecotes. The slides also show their broad knowledge of doves.
This gives viewers confidence in both the product and the company.
Prioritet SERNEKE
MYSA
Smithsonian Freer Sackler Gallery
This website employs a simple navigational slider to introduce the main website pages. The slider is clean and simple, using white space to draw visitors’ attention to the images.
75 Portraits de Securite Sociale
Au Lit Fine Linens
This home and decoration website uses photos in gray and beige tones to create a warm atmosphere. It gives the impression of actually walking into a cozy home.
It uses a full-screen, auto-rotating carousel to showcase various products.
Studio Lamadone
Mercedes Benz
A simple photo slider with subtle animation. It creates a story-telling experience that reaches viewers’ hearts.
Earls Kitchen
Claudia Moreira Salles
Studio Willen
ETQ Amsterdam
A remarkably well-made slider. Have a look and get inspired.
Leo Cavazzana
Hills
Hello Lucky
Arts should be showcased in full size. Pictures accompanied by bold, uppercase font and colors from the same range work well.
Viewers can get inspiration from this fantastic slider design.
Kibun
Lamborghini
The slider is as gorgeous as the cars. It consists of auto-playing high-resolution photos of luxurious sports car models.
Ettitude
Aaron Blaise’s website
Aaron Blaise worked at Disney for twenty years and showcases his skills in this portfolio slider. The artist uses this website to sell his art videos.
Worth & Worth
Sony Music
Sony Music is famous for using this kind of content. The website design, including the slider at the top, is fresh and creative.
Silver Oak
De Hooch
De Hooch lets the images do the talking. The carousel, though not full-screen, creates a large and eye-catching centerpiece.
Vedran Badun Adventures
AMAIO
AMAIO utilizes a full-page slider. The photographs are impressive thanks to the reduction of all other elements.
Materasso Hotels
Yozenn
This full-screen header slider does not auto-rotate and is purely decorative.
MITA Eyewear
Omega
Omega’s slider is a great example of how to use a simple and tasteful photography slider to tell a story. A subtle yet powerful animation effect on each slide catches the attention and gets you involved.
Rouillard
Flexie
Rally Interactive
A very impressive and unique full-screen homepage slideshow.
HELIAS
Pure Cycles
Pure Cycles uses both dots and arrows. The arrows give the visitors forward and back navigation. The dot navigation at the bottom prevents them from getting lost in the slides.
Native Union
Hi-tech devices make powerful lifestyle statements. Therefore, technology and style need to blend.
Native Union’s slider combines aesthetics and practicality. This allows visitors to focus on the details.
Liars and Lovers
The Soviet Taxi
An eye-catching and unique slider. It contains springy animation, a cool hover effect, subtle static, impressive art and photography styles, and joyful background music. You can’t help but look at each slide.
uBear
Likewise
Mikiya Kobayashi
It’s pure pleasure to scroll through this website. The photo sliders employ a gentle, slow-motion animation effect to maximize the impact.
TALIA
ROSBORG
The NoMad Hotel
A fullscreen slideshow consisting of photos that showcase the highlights of the hotel.
Cromier
Rhizom Studio
Louvre
The slider reflects the museum itself – historic and elegant. Whitespace, a serif font, and a fade to black effect in the images create a simple yet dramatic impression.
An added feature is the Play/Pause button in the lower right-hand corner.
kotohayokozawa
Hamerville Media
This slider is simple and consistent. The background stays the same when the slides move. Each image zooms in when visitors hover their mouse over it.
Red Edition
Round Studio
Round Studio is a branding agency that takes pride in handling various projects.
It uses photo sliders to tell the story of each project, show off their work, and engage potential clients. It also encourages employees to take pride in their work.
Guzema
Jax Vineyards
This website design includes a transparent menu and a slideshow on the main page.
Kostum No1
umdasch
This is a contemporary slider. It uses bars instead of bullets, has a dark background, and employs a few other modern details.
By clicking the video or any of the 360° panels the site will pop into a lightbox. This allows visitors to view the video or navigate a 3D space in a near full-screen mode.
UC San Diego
This is a great example of a slider used by an educational institution. It provides a lot of information without sacrificing a nice design.
Revelry
Fashion websites aim to make consumers feel inspired and happy. This amazing photo slider does that.
Smithsonian Institute
This slider employs prominent arrows making it easy to navigate back and forward. This is helpful as there is a lot of information to read on each slide and visitors may need to scroll back to catch it all.
Skal
This slider draws inspiration from the traditional carousels of horizontal website sliders.
It showcases content in small portions but also employs contemporary solutions. It’s a blend of the old-school vibe and visually pleasing modern tricks.
Mogutable
Ending thoughts on website sliders
Website sliders can be about anything. Use them to display your company logo in a cool way, or to create a header that features a video. They can make space for your company’s key message, or make CTA buttons pop.
Designers must remember that each website is different and will attract different visitors. They should use a variety of tools to display content.
Which tool to use will depend on the user’s needs, preferences, and interaction style. One of these tools is sliders.
With good design and correct use, they can make the browsing experience more engaging.
If you decide to use a slider, remember these pointers:
- Make sure the most important image is first to ensure visitors see it.
- Display each item for an appropriate time – not too short and not too long.
- Pay attention to transitions. Usually, a soft fade effect works best and is least distracting.
- Make navigation on the slider easy by including arrows.
- Remember the goal of the slider, for example telling a story, building a brand image, or creating a concept. Then use appropriate content.
The purpose of a slider is to create value for the visitors. It may be information they didn’t have before their visit. Or it may invite them to visit a page they wouldn’t have discovered otherwise.
If you enjoyed reading this article about website sliders, you should check out this article on how to add a slider in WordPress.
We also wrote about similar topics like using a hero slider, a video slider, a homepage slider (see the pattern here?). But also about the Ken Burns effect that we use in some of our slider templates, as well as WordPress themes with sliders included, WordPress video background, the particle effect, and slider animation examples.
