Enhancing UX with Smooth Scrolling in WordPress Themes
Posted on 17th June 2023
The user experience of a website plays a pivotal role in its success. A well-designed website that is easy to navigate and use will keep users coming back, while a site that is hard to use will quickly lose visitors.
One of the key elements of good UX is smooth scrolling. This is the process of moving up and down a page without any sudden jumps or stutters.
Smooth scrolling is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it makes the experience of using a website more pleasant. Nobody likes having to fight with their browser to scroll down a page.
Secondly, smooth scrolling can help to improve the usability of a site. If users can move around a page easily, they are more likely to be able to find the content they are looking for.
Thirdly, smooth scrolling can be used to create an element of style and design. A site that scrolls smoothly can look more polished and professional than one that doesn’t.
There are a number of ways to add smooth scrolling to a WordPress theme. The most common method is to use a plugin.
There are a number of smooth scrolling plugins available for WordPress. Some of the most popular include:
Scrollme
Smooth Scroll for WordPress
WP Smooth Scroll
These plugins all work in a similar way. They add a piece of code to your theme that ensures that the page scrolls smoothly when a user moves their mouse or uses the scroll bar.
Another way to add smooth scrolling to a WordPress theme is to edit the code of the theme directly. This is a more advanced method and is not recommended for beginners.
If you are comfortable editing code, you can add the following snippet to your theme’s functions.php file:
function smooth_scroll_scripts() {
wp_enqueue_script( ‘smooth-scroll’, get_template_directory_uri() . ‘/js/smooth-scroll.js’, array( ‘jquery’ ), ‘1.0’, true );
}
add_action( ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’, ‘smooth_scroll_scripts’ );
This code will add a smooth scrolling script to your theme. You will need to edit the path to the script to point to the correct file on your server.
Once you have added the code, you will need to enqueue the script in your theme. This can be done by adding the following code to your theme’s functions.php file:
function smooth_scroll_scripts() {
wp_enqueue_script( ‘smooth-scroll’, get_template_directory_uri() . ‘/js/smooth-scroll.js’, array( ‘jquery’ ), ‘1.0’, true );
}
add_action( ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’, ‘smooth_scroll_scripts’ );
This code will ensure that the smooth scrolling script is loaded on your pages.
Once you have added the code, you will need to test it to make sure it is working correctly. You can do this by visiting a page on your site and scrolling up and down.
If everything is working correctly, you should see the page scroll smoothly. If you see any stuttering or jerky movement, you will need to check the code and make sure it is correct.
Adding smooth scrolling to your WordPress theme can be a great way to improve the UX of your site. It can also be used to create a more polished and professional look.
If you want to give your users a smooth and seamless experience on your WordPress site, then you need to make sure that your theme is equipped with smooth scrolling.
Smooth scrolling is a feature that allows users to scroll through a web page without experiencing any jerkiness or lagging. This makes for a much smoother and faster user experience, which is especially important if your site contains a lot of content.
There are a few different ways that you can add smooth scrolling to your WordPress theme. One way is to use a plugin like Smooth Scroll by WPBeginner. This plugin is extremely easy to use and it will add smooth scrolling to your entire site with just a few clicks.
Another way to add smooth scrolling to your WordPress theme is by adding a bit of code to your functions.php file. Simply add the following code to your functions.php file:
add_action( ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’, ‘my_theme_enqueue_scripts’ );
function my_theme_enqueue_scripts() {
wp_enqueue_script( ‘smooth-scroll’, get_template_directory_uri() . ‘/js/smooth-scroll.js’, array( ‘jquery’ ), ‘1.0’, true );
}
This code will load the smooth-scroll.js file from your theme’s directory and it will make sure that it is only loaded on pages where it is needed.
Once you have added the code or installed the plugin, smooth scrolling will be automatically added to your WordPress site.
The above code will give you a nice, smooth scrolling effect when used in conjunction with an anchor tag.
But, you’re not limited to anchor tags. You can use this same code with any element on your page.
For instance, let’s say you have a table of contents at the top of your page, and you want smooth scrolling when someone clicks on one of the links in the table of contents.
You would first need to give each link in the table of contents a unique ID. Then, you would add the following code to your table of contents:
Replace “unique-id” with the actual ID of the element you want to scroll to.
You can also add smooth scrolling to buttons. Let’s say you have a button that takes the user to the top of the page.
You would add the following code to the button:
And then add the following code to your CSS file:
#button {
position: fixed;
bottom: 20px;
right: 20px;
z-index: 99;
border: none;
outline: none;
background-color: #3498db;
color: white;
cursor: pointer;
padding: 15px;
border-radius: 4px;
}
#button:hover {
background-color: #2980b9;
}
function scrollToTop() {
document.body.scrollTop = 0; // For Safari
document.documentElement.scrollTop = 0; // For Chrome, Firefox, IE and Opera
}
This will add a button to your page that, when clicked, will take the user to the top of the page.
You can also add smooth scrolling to your WordPress site by installing a plugin. There are a few different plugins you can choose from, but we recommend using the Smooth Scroll Up plugin.
Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, you can go to the Settings » Scroll Up page to configure the plugin settings.
We hope this article helped you learn how to add smooth scrolling to your WordPress site.
