Image Slider 2.0: Responsive Sliders, Video Rotations, Interaction Statistics, and More...

The decision to make your Magento site more appealing and attractive for customers will sooner or later lead you to the solution to try sliders on its pages.

According to most opinions of designers and store owners, backed by multiple tests, sliders are especially useful for the merchants selling eye-catching and stylish products.

Still, sliders are able to solve diverse tasks except simple product presentations, e.g. detailed product usage showings, deep explorations of the products' value, advanced brand awareness building, etc.

Of course, you will need video slides in those cases, which is exactly one of the main features of Image Slider 2.0. So, let us introduce the latest update of this extension and explain how it can enrich and expand the functionality of your Magento store.

New Features

Responsive Slider
Since the 2.0 version, the Image Slider extension becomes responsive. Slider boxes and slides, accordingly, now possess the ability to resize following the current size of parent elements.

As you have possibly guessed, the slider is responsive, if the store has a responsive theme installed.

This behavior is optional and can be specified while creating a new or editing existing slider at CMS -> Manage Image and Video Sliders -> Representation Section -> Representation field.

Responsive Slider Setup

Videos in Sliders
The updated version of the Image Slider module allows you to insert videos into your sliders, which enhance promotional and marketing abilities of slider boxes significantly. Using this feature you can provide customers with more valuable and comprehensive information regarding your products or brands.

Now, you can add video to newly created or existing slides easily from the Slider Information section in the backend. For the purpose you should just choose the Video option in the Content Type field of the Add Image or Video popup and add your video content to the slider.

You can embed a video code (via iframe) from the next video-sharing services:

• Youtube;


• Vimeo;


• Yahoo! Screen;


• DailyMotion;


• VK.

The provided configuration options allow you to determine the slide displaying period and its sort order within the current slider box.

Video Slides

Additional Animation Effects
The Image Slider extension contains multiple animation effects applied for slide changes. Nonetheless, we constantly provide new attractive solutions and the last update is not an exception. This time we added the slide and blink effect and now the entire list looks just like that:

• Simple slider;


• Fade\appear;


• Blind up\blind down;


• Slide up\slide down;


• Slide and blink (NEW!);


• Jalousie;


• Random effect for each slider.

Google Analytics Integration
The Image Slider extension allows merchants to collect statistics regarding the clicks made during interactions with sliders.

Previously this information was available for admins from the Content backend tab. The new version adds one more method of tracking – via Google Analytics service.

From now on, the module tracks clicks as GA events and sends the information to your Google Analytics account. For the purpose you should just specify two event parameters of the event: category and value. Wherein, the Category is a text parameter distinguishing a certain slider, while the Value is an integral numeric parameter, which determines the significance of a certain slide.

Google Analytics Category Parameter

Google Analytics Value Parameter

Slides Transition Intervals Setup
This option defines the duration of the animation, which leads to slide transitions. So, the shorter is this time, the faster is the transition. This functionality is available at CMS -> Manage Image and Video Sliders -> Slider Information -> Representation -> Transition speed, seconds.

Option to Display Images Randomly
If your slider box contains slides actually of the equal value, you can improve the UX of your regular visitors using this option. They will perceive your site much better, if you show them new slides each time they enter your store. The random order of slides displaying is a wise solution of this issue.

Conclusion

Current facilities of the Image Slider extension meet most requirements imposed on modern and effective website elements. The responsive design, possibility to use videos in slides, access to statistics, and multiple configuration options make this module a really powerful and easily adjusted promotional tool.

The product page of the Image Slider extension contains the ultimate list of available features, related documentation, and demo stores. Just visit it in order to purchase this extension or update the package, please.

In case you'd like to add something to this post, provide your comments below, please.
Subscribe to our RSS.