Christy Thom's Parallax Page

The Parallax Page

Wikipedia defines Parallax as “Parallax scrolling is a technique in computer graphics where background images move by the camera slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D scene and adding to the immersion. The technique grew out of the multiplane camera technique used in traditional animation since the 1930s.” (Wikipedia) What this means is that parallax will basically create a 3D effect by scrolling the page, you control the pace and style of the effect by the speed of your scrolling.

Parallax became popular 10 years ago and has only increased in popularity. This is because it brings some animation to websites, it is engaging and fun and gives life to websites the best thing about parallax is that it is able to be crawled unlike flash websites. Eddy Isenberg points out at Techwyse.com that “Parallax allows you to take your website visitors on a journey through your company, products, services, and other important features that is showcased on your website. It also allows your viewer to feel in charge of the experience. This will leave them with a positive feeling and gives them the impression that they are immersed in the experience.”(Isenberg).

Creating an engaging site is of primary concern in the ever expanding web market, there are now so many websites across so many businesses and services, being one that stands out above the others is very important for the growth of your business. A benefit to setting your stage with parallax is that you can create a story or frame your product in a three dimensional style. By setting a landscape that is a story format you can open the doors for curious customers to want to explore more. This type of engagement results in a visitor that stays on your website for a lot longer. In the end the longer someone stays on your site due to its engaging nature, the better this is for your overall organic SEO.

A benefit of using parallax when creating these stories on a website is guiding your visitor to your call to action. When scrolling down the page the content will reveal along with images as you tell your story. At the end of the page, it leads the visitor directly to the call to action of the page: Shop Now or Contact Us. Sabina Idler highlights this in “15 Reasons Why Parallax Scrolling In Web Design Is Awesome” when she shares, “You can also use parallax scrolling to guide your visitors. You can guide them into your site, through a story, or towards your call to action.”(Idler)

However, there is caution to take with having a site with parallax effects to the design. One of those concerns is that parallax is not a responsive design in that although the site itself can be made responsive, the animation effects will not be. This is something that needs to be clear at the start of any design process and taken into account as the site is built.

Another thing to keep in mind is that parallax designs can take longer to load due to the extra effects built into the site. This could be something that could see customers wander away from your site instead of being patient enough to wait for the effects and site to fully load. Sufyan bin Uzayr points out in “Things to Consider When Using Parallax Scrolling in Web Design,” these dangers when he states, “...if the page load times become ridiculously high (which they often do) all because of parallax, it goes without saying that you would be better off without parallax on your website. After all, compromising your search rank and losing traffic is surely not a price you would pay just to have a fancy scrolling effect on your site.”(bin Uzayr)

Finally a further caution in the use of parallax is that it simply can be used to much and create a website that is more overwhelming to a visiting than engaging, it is simply a case of too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Bin Uzayr says it best when he points out “Having parallax scrolling in such cases means you are presenting your information in a haphazard manner which will, at best, confuse your visitors, and at worst, drive them away from your website. After the first visit, the animation effects look more annoying that (sic) amazing. Thus, if you are pushing an idea on a web page, you can use parallax scrolling, but if you are pitching for a product or a business, parallax scrolling can do more harm than good.”(bin Uzayr) Trends are trends, sometimes they are good like bell-bottoms, sometimes they are bad like neon, parallax is a trend and used wisely can add a splash of panache to your design, but misused can drive your visitors to other websites. Ultimately as Isenberg shares it comes down to a good web development team, “Web design and Internet marketing has, and will continue to be more complex. Not only do you need an experienced web designer that is familiar with conversion enhancement, but you also need an experienced marketing company so your design and marketing strategies can work together in harmony.”(Isenberg)