Sometime 5 years ago a web designer decided that having a header with a background image & the text on top not scrolling at the same speed would be a fun idea. Since then, parallax effects have been all the rage.

From simple header to whole website scrolling effects, the parallax must be one of the longest trend to happen in web design. In fact I never had one product manager in 5 years that did not ask at some point or another to add a parallax effect to that text, or content block, or header. Why? My guess is that they want to spice up their app or website but they don’t really know how, so adding parallax is something simple to think about that “add” to a page. Hey everyone has one, me too!

Linkedin, Medium, I’m surprised how big companies still use it a lot. Me? I hate parallax, it slows down my computer & every time I see one I only see a product manager saying..

But the real interesting question is, does parallax hinder user experience?

Unfortunately not enough studies have been done on this subject, so it’s really hard to have a real understanding on the effects parallax have on user experience. The only study I found was done by a student of the Purdue University. He found out that there was no significant differences between the 2 groups he tested in terms of website usability, except that the group having the parallax found it fun…..

It’s quite an interesting read & there is a very good summary of the study (if you do not want to pay) here.

So anyway

I guess I’m stuck with your stupid parallax for still some time until it fades away, I look forward for the time where we will be all laughing about the parallax trend. Until then, yes I will use that plugin to do that parallax thing you want, can we move on to something more important?

// Rant mode off

Source: Position Absolute