In the late 1990’s web design came alive with animation and interactivity when Macromedia (Since acquired by Adobe) introduced Flash. Flash websites were a hot item and the early Flash design and development firms were in high demand and getting as much as $60,000 for 40 hours’ worth of work. The sites were beautiful and fun.
The demise of Flash was 3 fold. The first was security. Hackers found holes that allowed them to gain control of your computer. The second was that Google was gaining importance and Flash sites were not index able by search engines. But it was Apple that delivered the knockout punch when they chose not to support flash on the iPhone.
As web designers stepped away from Flash, website design reverted back to the basics. To add dynamics, scrolling pictures became the norm. In fact, at this writing that is still the most popular type of website.
We are at the dawn of a new age.
Parallax web design is the future of web design. Parallax, is the word used to describe the effect of the appearance of objects moving at different speeds. When driving, the trees near the road side appear to pass faster than the trees farther away and the distant mountains move even slower.
Why is this design the future? Because a designer can do everything we used to do in Flash without the drawbacks. The sites remain as secure as any custom site and they are fully search engine friendly, sort of.
Some pros of a Parallax site:
- They are interesting to the visitor which entices them to stay on the site longer.
- As a marketer animation gives you power to direct the visitors attention to where you want them to go.
- It is more likely that a web visitor will scroll to the bottom of a site then click another page.
- When a visitor spends more time on your site, it enhances your Google page rank.
Some cons of a Parallax site:
- Visitors view fewer pages which is a negative in the eyes of Google.
- Can be confusing to a visitor.
- They can be slower loading
- More costly to develop.
The good news is that a Parallax site does not need to be confusing to the viewer and there are ways to use it its power to get visitors to click on more pages that a standard site which will enhance your page rank with Google. And you don’t have to have a slow loading site.
Designers can get carried away with Parallax design. Here is an example of an amazing Parallax site that great to look at and navigate but slow load. Also, this site was not designed to be easily searched against competitors. http://journey.lifeofpimovie.com/#!/
There are ways to use this new technology to your advantage. We happen to be developing 4 such sites right now. I look forward to sharing them with you.