Keeping visitors on your page with surprising, creative tactics can help you convert them into leads or sales. Explore these six websites for surprising inspo.

If you’re in the business of designing websites, you know how important it is to grab attention from the very first click. In fact, the average visitor only spends 53 seconds on a website before moving on. Just like movies rely on plot twists to keep viewers hooked, websites can benefit from using the element of surprise — and, in turn, generate more sales. 

Adding that stopping power to your website combines creative thinking and website infrastructure. While effects and animations can help you sustain engagement, they must be used strategically and creatively to avoid distracting visitors. Meanwhile, your website must support that level of design freedom. 

The six websites below, built on Wix Studio, show the power of surprise using different creative tactics. Keep reading for inspiration on how to add stopping power to your websites and make an unforgettable first impression.

Maya Lynne Adar, multidisciplinary designer

Introducing herself as a multidisciplinary designer, Maya Lynne Adar uses her portfolio site to emphasize the “multi” with a multi-faceted creative experience. The site is elegant, playful, modern, nostalgic, structured, and flexible. Immerse yourself in the typography, navigation, or color scheme, and you’ll find that no detail is ever as it first appears. Fun fact: the color scheme changes randomly every time you refresh the page.

Discover Maya Lynne Adar’s site, built on Wix Studio, with shuffle and scroll animations, hover effects, custom CSS, and more.

Young Na Kim, brand design consulting

Like every concert has a big opening number, Young Na Kim’s portfolio site has a big opening fold. When you land on the site, your first instinct may be to scroll down to see more.  But with a surprising twist, Kim’s scroll doesn’t take you down the page. For this creative director, it’s a very creative introduction. 

Scroll through Young Na’s site, built on Wix Studio, with scroll, shape, spin, and sticky effects.

Praagya, creative technologist

With confident brutalist typography and a hypnotizing video background reminiscent of deep space and a fall down the rabbit hole, Praagya’s portfolio site immediately grabs attention. By leaving out standard navigational elements like a menu or header, Praagya instead uses a blend of his various creative experiences—video, digital collage, and illustration—to stop visitors in their tracks and propel them through the site. 

Dive into Praagya’s site, built on Wix Studio, which has hover effects and a custom cursor.

The Benev, hospitality and online store

This eComm site for The Benev—a multi-armed business rooted in comfort and well-being—exudes relaxed energy. A minimalist layout and a muted, earth-tone color palette provide both digital and psychological peace for visitors to explore the site leisurely. Though the business has so much to offer, the calm, quiet, and stillness resonate. It’s a UX and design strategy that leverages slowness and self-discovery over quick sales.

Experience The Benev’s site, built on Wix Studio, with a custom cursor, hover effects, and an online store.

en[i]gma, coding competition

While an event’s thrill is limited to a fixed time and place, an event website needs to bring that same thrill online. This site for en[i]gma, a coding competition for kids, builds anticipation for the upcoming event with numerous code-inspired Easter eggs that will impress and excite both kids and their parents. Beyond providing essential information about the competition, the site’s colorful, playful, and animation-laden design invites you to scroll repeatedly to discover all its interactive details.

Explore en[i]gma’s site, built on Wix Studio, with no-code scroll, hover, spin effects, and a custom cursor.

Anzo Studio, freelance brand and web design

Anzo Studio’s site encapsulates the spirit of “go big or go home” with larger-than-life typography and a brand narrative that unfurls on the screen with the intensity of breaking news headlines. The monochrome color palette sets the stage for the drama, and simple but whimsical video animations provide the stopping power that urges visitors to dwell and take in every line. Fresh from its feature on Awwwards, the site stands out even among creative critics. 

Visit Anzo Studio’s site, built on Wix Studio, with entrance animations and hover effects.

About the author
Aaron Gelbman writes for the Wix Studio blog, in addition to content research and strategy. Aaron began his career in creative agencies, including Ogilvy, M&C Saatchi, McCann, and mcgarrybowen Dentsu, and has also served as a D&AD Awards judge.