Rotating Topic Boxes: Are They Worth It?

Rotating topic boxes is like directing a three ring circus. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons and Joe Shalbotnik.

Written by guest blogger: Cindy Lollar / National Cancer Institute Office of Communications and Education / www.cancer.gov

Managing content on an agency’s home page can be a little like ring-leading a circus – with multiple acts underway at the same time, competing for attention. Maybe that’s why so many of us feature a rotating topic box at the top of the page (also called a “hero box”). But is this a merry-go-round that’s not worth the ride?

I hosted a discussion on this subject during a recent Web Community Forum Call ( resources and discussion on MAX*).  The pros and cons of rotating topic boxes seemed to come down to this:

Pros

• Relatively easy way to give 3-5 content items top billing, on what for most agencies is their most-visited single web page. (Note that “easy” implies an editorial process that systematizes how topics are selected with proper input from agency stakeholders. Also a good designer and ready access to images.)
• Variety of topics that automatically rotates can signal something of the breadth of your agency’s activities, even if a visitor doesn’t click on any particular item.
• Good visuals can be eye-catching, giving strategically important items a potential boost over text-only content.

Cons

•  Available data from a few agencies suggests that actual visitor engagement with the rotating items is pretty low (based on clicks to “learn more”): between 1 and 3 percent of those who visit the home page.
• User testing suggests that many visitors scan but ultimately ignore such image-heavy rotational boxes. This is because they assume the items are purely promotional (“advertising”), rather than core content they’re looking to  find. The automatic rotation also strikes some visitors as irritating – it’s important that there be “pause and play” controls.
• In most cases these boxes take up lots of space in a prime location – a location that may be better used for the “top tasks” your visitors are coming to the site to do. Every home page manager, of course, must seek a balance between user-centric and agency-centric messaging.

Let’s keep sharing our data and experiences with this design feature and other approaches to managing our agencies’ home pages. And if you sometimes feel like you’re at the circus too, don’t forget to pass the popcorn!

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