As a developer I'm involved on a discussion about Carousels. We have a CMS backoffice where the user can activate a carousel for his/her site. The main point is wether or not is needed to make optional the image for each slide. The main idea is not to make required any of the three main elements (Image, text, and CTA).
It doesn´t make sense for me not to have images on the carousel slides, because the image depict the main idea of the slide, the text gives a brief intro, and hopefully says "hi, there is more content to read", and the CTA gives a clear sense that it´s clickable (Even when the main slide can be a link). Even more if you´re selling something, the image is the MAIN point of interest.
I´ve read that carousels are not effective, that if you can a static hero image will be better, I've also read the main guidelines for designing effective carousels, but I couldn´t find anything related to don´t have images on slides.
Does it make sense to have carousel slides with no images? There is some guideline for it?