How To Liven Up Your Website With Scroll Animation

Our web designers are always on the lookout for the newest trends with websites, and one that we see picking up in popularity is CSS scroll animation. Adding these scroll effects to your website makes it feel more lively and interactive to your users, and gives designers the freedom to be creative with the different options that scroll animation entails.

What is CSS Scroll Animation?

If you’re not familiar with scroll animation, it is a feature on a website where elements appear or move as you navigate (scroll) down the page. This is opposed to the more traditional look that is static with text, images, and other graphics. Note: this is different than fixed background scrolling, in which the background elements stay in place while the rest of the components continue to scroll. 

Originally, animation when scrolling wasn’t popular or often considered when designing websites because it could look misleading for website visitors. Some user experience (UX) research has shown that it’s most user-friendly to keep elements visible at all times to avoid confusion and issues with slow loading sites. However, since these animated features have gained popularity, some positive applications of scroll animations have surfaced, and developers and designers have begun embracing this ideology.

Why Should I Use On-Scroll Animation Effects?

Besides the fact that animation, when scrolling, adds a wow factor, there are many benefits to developing websites with this enhancement. Our expert, Iowa web design team, has compiled a list of the top four reasons scroll animation could be advantageous to your site:

• On-scroll animation effects keep users engaged. Our eyes are attracted to movement, so as users scroll and new content comes into view, it’s more eye catching than static text. The viewer will stay interested longer and want to continue scrolling further down the page.
• Scrolling effects help page load time. Instead of keeping users waiting while the entire web page loads, scroll animation allows individual elements to load as they are needed. Blue Compass’ developers program the most important pieces of information to appear first, such as the above the fold content, call-to-action, a form, or other content depending on the client’s goals.
• Animation when scrolling can direct attention to a call-to-action. On-scroll animation effects can be used to draw attention to a specific section of the site, almost pointing to an area like an arrow. Thinking out of the box, the effects don’t always need to occur right when the user scrolls to a new section. For example, the scroll animation can happen after the text has loaded, then when the user starts scrolling, it signals the animation to load a “Next Steps” button. The scrolling indicates that the user is done reading and now needs direction. Overall, it keeps the webpage engaging, ultimately leading to more conversions.
• Website scrolling effects prevent users from becoming lost when navigating. As Matt Eller says, “Animation can be used to make transitions more obvious, so it’s clear what happened between where the user started and ended up.”

When Do You Implement Scroll Animation?

During the website development process, front-end developers can integrate scroll effects utilizing CSS scroll animation. Using this coding technique, it is possible to implement almost any website scrolling effects, such as elements appearing from the side of your screen, or elements scrolling in from a different direction. Generally, this step occurs after the design has been finalized and before back-end development begins. At Blue Compass, our Iowa web designers and front-end developers meet to discuss possible animations that can be created based on the static design.

Examples of Website Scrolling Effects

As you can tell, the Blue Compass team is supportive of this scroll animation trend. We believe this design element increases conversions, improves user experience; and we have seen positive improvements to website behavior metrics and SEO as a result. Below are a few examples of sites utilizing animation when scrolling.

Blue Compass

On our new homepage design, our UX specialists, web developers and designers were excited to collaborate and create an animated web design that showcased our main service lines, portfolio, team members and more. We even use other types of user experience animation, which you’ll see as you hover along our services.

Igor & Nexos

An eye-catching line is a great way to lead users down the webpage and encourage scrolling. As the user reads the sections of text on Igor's site, it allows the rest of the page to load appropriately and draw the user through the entire home page. Our design team created this scroll animation design to keep users reading each service category Igor offers. We used the same concept on their new product page. Nexos is an intelligent UV disinfection solution that protects offices and gives them a healthy environment for employees.

McAninch

Our design for the McAninch home page needed to showcase the brand’s projects, people and equipment. We used video footage to grab users’ attention right away. As users scroll down the page, modern web design trends like bold photography, diagonal design and scroll animation are used to highlight brand values, service lines, team members and projects.

TaxiNet

TaxiNet uses animation to explain their app to new customers in an engaging and easy-to-understand format. Each time a user scrolls, they see even more features available to them, and they’re given a step-by-step outline of how the app works. The diagonal website design theme keeps users scrolling because they’re interested in what’s coming next.

Open Bible

When our designers created a website layout for Open Bible, we incorporated hover animation into the main callouts at the top of the page and added scroll animation within the related shapes to grab the reader's eye. Giving the content on the page a little movement makes it even more interesting for the website users. 

Our UX Research Could Determine If Scroll Animation is a Good Fit For Your Website

Ask about our user-experience (UX) audits to see how your website could benefit from on-scroll animation effects! Our analysts will report how your site is doing currently, and where users are getting confused or losing interest. We then use the information gathered from our research to recommend the best website scrolling effects for you and the advantages they could bring to your business.

Mallory Suntken

Mallory double majored, earning her B.S. in Marketing and Management from Iowa State University. She writes SEO-focused content pieces, creates effective digital marketing campaigns and executes social media and SEO campaigns to drive traffic back to clients' websites. Mallory is always eager to learn more about the latest trends in SEO and all things digital marketing and loves taking on new challenges. She has been featured in several blogs for her social media and content marketing expertise.