Is Parallax Scrolling Still Relevant in Website Design
Parallax scrolling effect made its debut in conventional web design back in 2011. 9 years have been passed and as we know, website design trends rapidly change with time. So, what’s the case with parallax scrolling? Is it still relevant? We discussed with a leading website design company and here’s what the professionals have to say about it. Keep reading to learn all about it.
Before diving to the relevance, let’s first take a brief look at what is parallax scrolling.
Parallax Scrolling – A Quick Overview
This is a web design technique where the background design moves at a slower pace than the front design. Though both the designs are 2D the pace of the movements results in a 3D effect. It adds a sense of depth and creates an immersive browsing experience when the users scroll the site.
Parallax effect is based on optical illusion. The human eye can perceive objects that are nearer to the eye as larger than the objects placed farther away. Parallax scrolling effect capitalizes on this.
Curious fact – the first use of parallax effect was in traditional animation – in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and video games like Super Mario.
It later evolved into the world of website design with the advancement in HTML and CSS. We will discuss this in brief in the later part of the blog. So keep reading.
Examples of Parallax Effect
Now that you have received a comprehensive idea about the technique, let’s take you through two examples of it for a complete understanding.
1. Protea
This is a restaurant website that uses box-based website layouts featuring various snippets of their Napa Valley location and Caribbean cuisines. A subtle parallax scrolling effect creates a smooth transition through the array of images.
2. Chris Covert
The Aerospace engineer Chris Covert’s website brilliantly implements parallax scrolling effect. Throughout the site, Chris’s skills, educational background and experience lists are interactively injected in the website design. The background swiftly changes as the visuals (images, business cards) stay put.
Answering the Question – the Relevance of Parallax Effect
We started the blog with a question – whether parallax effect is relevant even to this date or not. Let us tell you that in the 9 years (from 2011 when parallax effect was introduced in the contemporary practice of web design), many trends have come and gone. But parallax scrolling has been established as a substantial design asset and it’s here to stay!
Why so? Precisely for three main reasons:
1. Creating parallax effect doesn’t require an exhaustive tech expertise. It’s possible to craft this design with a combination of HTML and CSS. So the business owners can easily arrange for any reliable website development company professionals who can create this design for their sites.
2. Day by day, user experience is becoming the last word for keeping the users hooked to a website, rely on it and become a customer. Parallax scrolling is an excellent technique to add depth to the site design and create an immersive experience for the users.
3. A beautiful website may turn the traffic’s eyes or make them stay on your site for a little longer than usual but without proper substance, you cannot earn their trust. Also, a site may contain lots of content but you need to direct the users how to find everything without breaking a sweat.
Simply developing a website cannot drive revenue if you don’t plan for user journey. Parallax scrolling effect does just that for you. It highlights the major content on your site without making the site look clumsy. You may check out Protea’s website (stated above) for an understanding. Here the boxes contain distinct content and as a user (say, you) scrolls down, each segment is highlighted and drives attention.
How to Create a Parallax Scrolling Effect
At this point, you must be curious about how to create a parallax scrolling effect? We will outline it in this section.
You can incorporate parallax scrolling into your site using CSS. Here’s a basic CSS code snippet to obtain desired results:
.parallax {
background-image: url("image.png");
/* Set the height */
height: 400px;
/* Create a parallax effect */
background-attachment: fixed;
background-position: center;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-size: cover;
}
Wrapping Up
Gone are the days of text-saturated static websites. It’s time to design an engaging website to achieve a competitive edge. Parallax scrolling can ensure you just that. Simply make sure to use it strategically for optimal impact and witness a transformation on your website!
Got a thought? We are all eyes!
