We sat down with our User Experience Lead, Raudel Enrique, to talk about parallax, one of the new changes included in our Spring 2016 release. Along with a new Basic theme, Moonlight, our team has been hard at work improving the user experience for our customers. Here, Raudel shares what to expect.
What is parallax?
In short, parallax refers to the difference between layers, where there are closer and more distant objects. What that means in web design is that it creates dimension in a website.
Imagine that the website is a flat surface, and you are looking through a car window on the highway. The background moves at a slower speed and gives you the illusion that the background is a lot farther back, like mountains in the distance. Things closer to your eye move faster than the background. As you scroll on the page, the images will have different speeds.
Will our websites feature parallax?
Our websites will have it, and some of our Exclusive themes already do. The work that we’re doing with Advanced Settings and the fact that we can add different layers with a click of a button will be new with the feature.
Users will simply be able to go into their Advanced Settings, add a background image, and tell it to parallax.
Which websites will feature parallax?
Some of the Exclusive themes, and our new Basic theme, Moonlight. That means that all of our users will potentially have the option to add parallax to their site. But not everything will work with parallax, such as widgets. It works best with full-width images across the top of the website.
What difference will it make?
Parallax images pull your eye, so if a user is trying to communicate a key message or call to action, they can add a parallax and the eye will immediately be attracted to that movement. It will help users communicate more efficiently with their visitors.
Also, it looks professional, appealing, and adds dimension to sites.
Is this feature unique to our platform?
Other website providers may offer parallax, but we are adding easy-to-use sections, which is new for financial and insurance professionals. For example, an individual will be able to create a parallax image, add text, and center it simply with a few clicks. We’re making it easy for them to make changes to their website without having to be a developer or hire a professional.
Parallax is just one of the exciting changes we incorporated into our Spring Release. Log into your FMG Suite Dashboard today to see these changes!