Lately I've noticed more websites using aggressive scroll-triggered animations and scroll-jacking effects, especially on promotional pages. I can appreciate motion when it supports the content, but some sites make visitors scroll through a minute of transitions just to reach a product or checkout button. Is this trend mainly driven by AI-assisted development, design trends, templates, or something else?
5 Answers
It’s also an attempt to stand out in a crowded market. Agencies and showcase galleries reward unusual visuals, so designers chase impressive-looking interactions even when they slow down a simple task. A normal visitor usually wants to find information or complete an order quickly, not admire every transition.
Used carefully, scroll-based motion can be excellent for storytelling—for example, revealing how a product works or giving a comic or game site a sense of depth. The difference is that the content should remain usable without the effect, the main actions should stay easy to reach, and the page should respect normal scrolling and reduced-motion settings.
AI-assisted development probably makes the trend more noticeable, but excessive animation was already common before AI. Templates, visual site builders, and design showcases have normalized adding motion to every section, so newer developers and marketers often treat it as a requirement rather than an optional enhancement.
A lot of people confuse animation with scroll-jacking. Animation can respond to normal scrolling without taking control away from the user. The real problem starts when a page remaps the wheel or trackpad, delays movement, or forces visitors through a sequence before they can reach the useful content. That hurts predictability and accessibility, especially for keyboard users or anyone who enables reduced motion.
Designers often want a site to feel distinctive, and motion is an easy way to signal personality. Unfortunately, it can turn into animation everywhere: text reveals, parallax, sliding panels, and elaborate transitions. Clients frequently change their minds after trying the site on a phone or realizing that the effects make them feel dizzy.
That makes sense. It feels like AI has made it much easier for everyone to reproduce the same flashy design patterns without stopping to question whether they improve the experience.