Interactive Website Design for #1 NYT Bestselling Author
Immersive Dark Romance Experience
Callie Hart
calliehart.comCallie Hart is a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of dark romance novels, captivating millions of readers worldwide with her atmospheric storytelling. We were tasked with creating a digital experience that would capture the gothic essence of her literary world — dark, immersive, and unforgettable.
The result is a website that draws visitors into Callie's universe from the very first scroll. A multi-layered parallax hero with interactive WebGL fluid dynamics sets the tone, while custom book showcases and carefully crafted typography honour the dark romance aesthetic throughout.
Multi-layered parallax hero with interactive WebGL fluid dynamics
The Scope
What They Wanted
"A website that felt like scrolling through one of her novels"
Callie wanted a highly interactive website that took elements from her books and brought them to life. The idea of the homepage was to engage users and feel like they were scrolling through one of her stories.
Although the content and structure of the site remained mostly the same, the importance was to make the users feel like they wanted to explore the site and make it feel like an extension of one of her novels, hopefully prompting people to get in touch or purchase her books.
What We Did
Discovery & Branding
When Callie approached us, she already had a logo for her brand but not much else in terms of visual identity. During the discovery process, we explored various colour palettes for the site. We knew we wanted a dark, moody aesthetic that reflected the tone of her books, but we also wanted to incorporate a bright accent colour to create visual highlights throughout the site.
Gothic Design System
Cotta
Display Serif — Headings & TitlesSchibsted Grotesk
Sans-Serif — Body Text
Wireframing
The aim was to preserve the overall structure of the site while improving the user experience. After reviewing user journeys, we reorganised certain sections to create a more intuitive flow, guiding visitors more naturally toward the books and encouraging deeper engagement with Callie's stories.
Design
The design was the most important part of this build. We wanted the site to be highly interactive with scroll animations. The idea was that the homepage told a story and users felt like they were scrolling through one of Callie's books. To bring this to life, we storyboarded a rough sketch on a whiteboard before translating the concept into Figma, ensuring the narrative flowed seamlessly from start to finish.
Design Evolution
Before
After
From wireframe concept to immersive dark romance experience
Development Breakdown
The website was built on WordPress using Gutenberg blocks, while the homepage was crafted as a custom page template. On the frontend, we utilised HTML, CSS, JavaScript, GSAP, and WebGL to bring the interactive, story-like design to life.
What Makes Callie Hart Unique?
It was Callie's storytelling that guided the design — not the other way around. Rather than building a typical author website, we created an experience that mirrors the way her readers feel when they turn the pages of her books: immersed, intrigued, and unable to look away.
Every detail, from the fog that clears as you explore to the parallax layers that draw you deeper, was crafted to make visitors feel like they've stepped into one of Callie's dark romance worlds. The result is a website that doesn't just showcase an author — it tells her story.
SEO Performance
After launching the redesigned site, organic traffic saw explosive growth driven by immersive design and strategic SEO content.
Organic traffic saw significant growth following the site redesign, with monthly visitors increasing substantially year-on-year, driven by improved technical SEO and content strategy.