Out with the old, in with the new. As you may be aware, user experience and how users interact with your website during the first few moments of their visit makes or breaks their continued and future use of your site. Meaning, first impressions matter a lot. In 2017, static images and clicking through websites are out, and scrolling and vertical movements are in. How can you be caught up with that trend and create an excellent impression?
You may have heard the term “parallax” or “parallax effect” being thrown around recently. In fact, you yourself have probably even encountered parallax being used on many websites you’ve visited, without realizing what it was. Believe it or not, though it sounds like something that would be complicated, it’s actually very easy to do! Been curious about exactly what it is and why it’s quickly becoming a special effects phenomenon? Here’s what it’s all about, and how you can use it.
Parallax is an effect that treats the background and front content of a website as two separate things. The effect that this has is that when a viewer scrolls, the background and foreground move at different speeds, creating a sensation of depth and a 3D feel. You may be familiar with this sensation from old video games (Mario Kart anyone?). Parallax is part of a growing trend in technology right now that looks beyond the early 2000’s mentality of using basic static images and tacky effects, to using a revolutionary tool that allows the viewer to control the movement of the image. Parallax is a game changer because it offers an answer to the recent trend of scrolling, rather than clicking, through a page online, and allows you to play more of a hand in cultivating the uniquely engaging user experience that visitors have on your site.
How is it used? You can use parallax to give a polished and sophisticated look to your blog or social media site to impress your followers as they scroll through your page, with the effect highlighting the most important areas of your page. Additionally, adding parallax to your company website dramatically enhances the professional look of your page. If you work with visuals, parallax can help bring them to life and adds infinitely to how you showcase your creations online, creating a pleasant and impressive visitor experience.
One of the major appeals of using a parallax effect is that there is truly no coding required, so anyone can use it. You just have to select the right image and where it will be placed on the page, and add the effect. Parallax is subtle yet striking, and since it is the user’s scrolling that controls the effect, it entices the viewer to spend a longer time on the site, and form a relationship with the page. The effect is attention grabbing and lends some interesting depth and dimension to the site, which you can see when you try it out for yourself. Try adding parallax images and videos with text in the foreground, and play around with what areas of an image reveal itself as the page scrolls.
Websites like Emaze, Wix and Weebly allow users creating content to add parallax to their page. Some of the sites that offer a parallax effect even offer different kinds of parallax effects, such as Emaze, which allows users to choose between Parallax, Parallax Motion and Parallax Zoom (to learn more about how to add the different kinds of parallax effects to an Emaze, click here).
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