Scrollytelling is a powerful technique for telling immersive stories on the web—using a combination of interactive content elements that elevate story arcs, improve readability, and sustain reader interest.
In this Guide to Scrollytelling
What is Scrollytelling?
The portmanteau of “scrolling” and “storytelling”, scrollytelling is a web design format used to tell dynamic, multimedia stories that unfold as readers scroll through a website. Popularized by editorial from the likes of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, scrollytelling underpins some of the most immersive and engaging content experiences on the web.
Scrollytelling websites dynamically combine a variety of content elements—from video, images, 3D models, charts, and infographics, to text and animated typography. It breathes instant life and movement into any content, and actively involves readers in what they are consuming—creating a sense of control, exploration, and discovery.
The Power of Scrollytelling
If you’re a marketing manager or content strategist, you know how important audience engagement is. Operating in an attention economy where the average human attention span is about 8 seconds, you need to break through all the other digital noise and offer something that captivates your audience immediately.
Scrollytelling can do all that and more. It has emerged as a powerful way to present content and create dynamic narratives that actively engage audiences. Most importantly, it allows users to interact with content in a way that wasn’t possible in the not too distant past.
" Scrollytelling makes your reader an active participant in your content.
Unlike traditional linear website experiences, scrollytelling allows readers to scroll up and down—even across—and click on buttons or icons to reveal additional information and interactions. They control the narrative by navigating at their own pace and taking the time to explore every single part of the story, which in turn produces a more personalized experience.
How to Use Scrollytelling on the Web
There aren’t any real rules when it comes to scrollytelling, but as the name suggests, it works best for telling stories—blending sections of text with rich visual media. This makes it a popular choice for commercial departments and content studios looking to create slick marketing and brand experiences.
Editorial
From news articles to photo essays, scrollytelling is a popular choice for editorial departments looking to tell their story in a visual-first format.
Data reports
Transform your traditional linear and data-heavy reports for interactive experiences that allow a story to unfold and data to flourish on the page in a more easy to understand way.
Advertorial
Like editorial content, advertorials often offer a narrative, and scrollytelling techniques can help shape this story visually to engage and convert your audience.
Product pages
Showcasing products with scrollytelling techniques helps them jump out from the page, cutting through the noise of competitor content and engaging customers.
Striking Scrollytelling Examples
As such a creative and versatile format, scrollytelling can effectively be used on any website—you don’t have to look too far to spot a website using one or more scrollytelling elements. We’ve seen some great scrollytelling examples for photo essays, animated comics, interactive presentations, and even portfolios.
Popular Scrollytelling Design Techniques
Scrollytelling isn’t a singular, isolated web design technique—it’s a collection of multiple techniques and tools that together create interactive website experiences. This is what makes scrollytelling such a fun and exciting choice for web content; there are so many ways to play around with it. Here are a few of the most popular scrollytelling techniques you’ll want to experiment with:
How No-code is Making Scrollytelling Viable for All
Scrollytelling looks complex to build, which is partly why it feels so premium and impressive. If you take a peek at the code behind scrollytelling websites, you’ll be instantly vindicated; it’s next-level stuff.
As a result, many creative teams and agencies believe scrollytelling is beyond their reach—it would require an eye-watering budget, endless amounts of time, and a taskforce of design-genius developers to ever make it happen.
We built Vev to change that. With a pre-coded library of scrollytelling elements that can be easily customized and moved around a visual canvas, creative teams can design and publish slick scrollytelling web experiences in a matter of hours.
You can even integrate your CMS to bring dynamic scrollytelling elements to your existing content without overhauling your existing tech stack.
" Vev is enabling a new generation of creatives to craft and publish interactive visual stories without knowing any code.
How to Build a Scrollytelling Website in Vev
If you’re looking to bring an immersive, cinematic feel to your website, you’ll want to get familiar with scrollytelling. Watch our video tutorial, led by Lewis, to get to grips with scrollytelling.
Scrollytelling Best Practices
Scrollytelling is extremely powerful, but only when done right. To effectively engage and guide the audience through your content, following best practices is essential. Here are a couple of points to consider to ensure scrollytelling is not only visually captivating but also intuitive, responsive, and impactful for your users.
Focus on seamless user experience
With scrollytelling, the flow of information is crucial. Ensure each section transitions smoothly, and be mindful not to overwhelm the user with too many effects; prioritize clarity and ease of navigation.
- Use smooth scrolling and scroll progress indicators to keep users engaged and aware of where they are in the story
- Incorporate responsive design so that the scrolling experience works seamlessly across all devices, including mobile
Prioritize performance optimization
Scrollytelling websites often feature rich multimedia content, which can slow down load times. Vev's inbuilt optimization settings ensure your site performs well without sacrificing quality, but remeber to:
- Optimize images and videos for the web before uploading them to Vev to ensure best performance
- Take advantage of Vev’s built-in lazy loading to ensure media only loads when it’s about to be viewed, improving speed and performance
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