Browsers have had consistent scrolling behavior for years, even across vendors and platforms. There’s an established set of physics, and if you muck with the physics, you can assume you’re making some people sick.
Guidelines to consider before adding swooshy parallax effects:
- Respect the Physics
- Remember that We Call Them “Readers”
- Ask for Consent
Given all the work that goes into a powerful piece of journalism—research, interviews, writing, fact-checking, editing, design, coding, testing—is it really in our best interests to end up with a finished product that some people literally can’t bear to scroll through?
If a tiny winch was stuck at the wrist with a super thin wire leading up to the tip of our index finger, it could simulate a surface by straining and retracting the wire at just the right time and thus giving haptic feedback in mid air. This would create an “air tap“, simulating a surface that doesn’t exist.
