In this piece last month by Nora Paul and Laura Ruel on the Online Journalism Review, the authors found in their study on online slide show navigation that, “this observation of navigational methods use makes clear that if you can only have one navigation method – the “next” method, moving linearly through the set of slides is the one to use.”

Navigating slide shows: What do people choose when every choice is possible?
Is the linear orientation to looking through material so hard-wired into our media usage that it is, and will continue to be, the preferred way to take in media?

By Nora Paul and Laura Ruel

Observations
In terms of practical advice, this observation of navigational methods use makes clear that if you can only have one navigation method – the “next” method, moving linearly through the set of slides is the one to use. It was the primary choice of the majority of the participants and resulted in viewing the most slides.However, if amount of time spent with the story package is your primary goal, people who clicked from slide to slide using the “arrow” spent almost a minute longer than the “next” users. – more