Apple’s AirPods Pro Web Page: Scrolljacking Hell

The AirPods Pro “overview” web page is a strange beast. It pegs my 2015 MacBook Pro’s CPU — even when I’m not scrolling. I closed the tab a few minutes ago and my fan is still running. The animation is very jerky and scrolling feels so slow. There’s so much scrolljacking that you have to scroll or page down several times just to go to the next section of the page. The animation is at least smooth on my iPad and iPhone, but even there, it feels like a thousand swipes to get to the bottom of the page. It’s a design that makes it feel like they don’t want you to keep reading.

Disable JavaScript (easily toggled if you enable Safari’s Develop menu) and the page is easy to read and looks great. I can’t recall an example where scrolljacking makes a website so much worse.

Update: Nick Heer (of Pixel Envy fame) messaged me to point out that the iPad Pro product page gives the AirPods Pro page a run for its money for top spot in the Scrolljacking Hall of Shame. The iPad Pro page doesn’t peg my MacBook Pro’s CPU, but it scrolls the view horizontally while you scroll vertically.

★ Monday, 28 October 2019