Site Redesign: Wealthsimple (wealthsimple.com)
over 6 years ago from Kieran Rheaume, Pretend designer and product person
over 6 years ago from Kieran Rheaume, Pretend designer and product person
I love the look, but the scrolling interaction was very confusing. I thought the page was stuck multiple times. The text changing as you scroll is much to subtle.
you got... SCROLLJACKED
So well executed. Scroll-jacking is always meh but when it tells a compelling story, it just works. The way the video elements feel embedded in the UI is particularly elegant.
Does anyone know if this was in-house?
I have to agree. I never understood the immediate scroll-jack hate. If it's paired with solid content, it can be an effective way deliver a story.
The reason scrolljacking is overall a bad idea (I would include this redesign) is that you're assuming users are coming to your website to learn about your story. When you take 1 minute to get to the bottom of a site like this, and also prevent people from scrolling, you remove their ability to skim for relevant information to them. What you're saying is "THIS IS THE STORY YOU WILL CARE ABOUT". But people usually just want a few simple key facts, and will convert or move on.
If you care more about shoehorning a story at your users than letting them skim and discern who you are from your actual info then go for it. Otherwise you're probably causing a lot of pain.
Scrolling through again, I'll admit that it takes a few mouse-wheel flicks too many to move through the sections. In that regard, sure, a bit irritating.
But this is also the homepage.
In a sea of HERO IMAGE + SUPERIMPOSED GREETING MESSAGE + CTA BUTTON or LEFT ALIGNED SIGN UP FORM + MACBOOK/IPAD/IPHONE SCREEN MOCKUP, something like this stands out. It's interesting. I applaud their efforts.
Looks to me like a lot of time was spent crafting a highly deliberate message not intended to be skimmed over. Without knowing the details of the project, calling it a bad idea across the board seems a bit shortsighted. Is it a risk? Definitely. But with the craft that so obviously went into this site, I'd say the folks working on it were aware of their decisions.
I just think scroll-jacking prevents interaction which seems counter intuitive to the web as a medium. I totally resist all auteur ux.
Fair enough. I'm simply arguing for its use as a design technique on occasion. Something something right tool for the job.
They worked with Man vs Machine on 3d elements and animation. More about redesign and sketches here - https://www.wealthsimple.com/magazine/news-redesign
Great website, but I was able to get through most of the onboarding/account creation process before it 'told' me that this service is only for Canadians (by way of not allowing me to enter in a United States residential address).
Would have appreciated that info a lot sooner!
A small, petty part of me says ha - now you know how Canadians feel ALL the time signing up or ordering anything =P
Absolutely love those animations. excellent CG work. Also frustrated by the scroll-jacking but the design makes up for it.
Felt trapped. The aesthetics are completely on-point and the money trailing down the page is a clever trick—but it simply takes too long to scroll through and traps you these different sections. Instead of skimming the site in a few seconds I waited unpleasantly for 30 to get to bottom. I also had the issue where I page-parked this in a tab and missed the entire intro coin animation.
Rethink the scroll-jack. In my experience is kills conversions, too. (although money management and investment is never really a simple or quick decision so maybe they don't care about that)
Nice clean design. Shame about the scroll-jack.
Great CGI stuff, didn't like the scroll-jacking although I do understand the reason behind it. It worked better after a while but also thought the website was stuck.
Loved the coin video. How did you made it?
excellent CG on those videos (or magic coins). So who did it?
Adding another "lovely site but the scrolljack on the text blocks was a bit confusing/frustrating" comment.
Really love the video content and the overall look and feel though.
Beautiful design, but I too kept thinking the page was stuck. Also I can't un-see the iPhone being flipped the wrong way around.
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