Evaluating scroll-hijacking techniques in the context of call-to-action specific websites

Abstract: The rapid improvement of hardware and internet speed in modern societies has contributed to more vibrant websites with lots of motion, which often has a correlation to a better user experience, but not always. Scroll-hijacked websites are one of the more controversial techniques, a questionable action where one modifies the default scroll behaviour, which affects the preconceived notions about how to navigate a website. But the effect can be beneficial when one wants to draw attention to crucial call-to-action (CTA) elements.  This thesis resulted in creating a scroll-hijacked prototype based on an already deployed event website with lots of vital CTA elements. The developed prototype was then evaluated against the old website through A/B testing with SUS- and NASA-TLX-surveys. These tests and evaluations were performed by a user study with 44 participants. During the thesis, it was found that there are areas of use where it can be favourable to use scroll-hijacking to increase attention for CTA elements, and thereby increase the conversion, but it requires a thoughtful application.