How to Use Scrollytelling to Improve Life Sciences Website UX
Scrollytelling isn’t just for journalism or consumer tech. It’s a powerful way to make complex content feel clear, structured, and intuitive. For life sciences startups trying to explain scientific concepts, trial phases, or investor narratives, it can completely shift how users experience your site.
Here’s how to use it to improve the user experience on your website.
Why Life Sciences Websites Need a Different UX Approach
Most life sciences websites prioritize information density over usability. That means long blocks of technical content, downloadable PDFs, and static data tables. For users, it’s a grind to get through.
Founders usually think more content equals more clarity. In reality, too much information with no structure leads to confusion or bounce. That’s where scrollytelling makes a difference. It breaks down the message into a controlled narrative. Users scroll to move through your story, seeing content in small, sequenced parts.
This format works especially well for biotech and medtech companies that need to build trust with limited data or early-stage traction.
What Scrollytelling Looks Like in Practice
Scrollytelling combines text, visuals, animation, and pacing into one interactive experience. Instead of reading through a standard webpage or clicking around tabs, users scroll through a storyline that’s built to unfold step by step.
Examples include a clinical development timeline that highlights each phase as it appears, or a technology explainer where illustrations load with short summaries as the user scrolls. The result is a smoother flow of information and a much lower cognitive load for the visitor.
It feels more like an interactive pitch deck than a traditional website.
Benefits for Life Sciences UX
Stronger engagement with complex content
Rather than dumping all your information upfront, scrollytelling helps users absorb it piece by piece. That’s critical when you’re explaining scientific mechanisms, regulatory steps, or platform technology.
Clear control over the narrative
You guide users through your core messages in a fixed sequence. That helps with credibility and keeps the focus where you want it, especially when you’re targeting investors or partners.
Higher conversions
If visitors understand your message faster, they’re more likely to click, contact, or share. Good UX builds trust. Scrollytelling makes that trust easier to earn.
Where to Use Scrollytelling on Your Site
Scientific explainers
Walk users through your product’s mechanism of action using simple illustrations that animate into view. Add plain-language text synced with the scroll so every step of your science becomes clear.
Pipeline or clinical progress
Turn static timelines into interactive progress trackers. Add callouts for milestones, enrollment numbers, or upcoming results as the user scrolls through your pipeline.
Founder or company story
Combine real photos, short captions, and investor messaging into a scroll-based format that humanizes your company and communicates your mission without extra clicks.
Best Practices to Keep in Mind
Start with the message. Figure out what you want your user to understand and structure the scroll to support that outcome.
Use scroll triggers to reveal charts, icons, or statements at the right moment. That helps users stay focused and prevents information overload.
Keep transitions subtle. Clean fades or light zooms are usually enough. Avoid effects that distract from the story.
Test every flow on mobile. Scroll-based design should work just as well on a phone as on a desktop. Avoid heavy visuals or scripts that slow down the load time.
Use analytics to learn where users slow down or drop off. If people are stalling halfway through your scroll story, that’s a sign the content or pacing needs work.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Too much motion can make your site feel chaotic. Don’t treat scrollytelling as a design stunt. It’s about focus, not flair.
If users can’t find your navigation or calls to action, the experience breaks. Always keep pathways clear.
Avoid stuffing multiple messages into a single scroll section. One idea per block keeps the experience clean and effective.
We Can Help You Build It Right
If you’re working on a new life sciences website and want to explore how scrollytelling can improve clarity, engagement, and conversion, we can help. Contact us to learn how we build UX that works for founders and the science they’re scaling.
