For me, it was much worse than a normal essay, because it was too slow. I dislike having to wait between chunks of text like that. It was cute and gimmicky at the beginning, but I quickly lost patience.
The website is certainly cool for presentations, but it's a terrible format for an essay.
If you were racing through the presentation, could you have seriously been reflecting on its contents? Much of the visual movement was designed to accompany a process of thought. In short, you might consider chewing your food instead of swallowing it whole.
Every time I say this, someone accuses me of not thoroughly understanding what I read. But I've excelled at pretty much every reading comprehension test I've ever taken, so it's getting kind of old.
I assume you found the "autoplay" button? I just clicked through the whole thing, and the short animation-induced delays were actually welcome. It would have been unbearable if I couldn't control the speed, though.
The website is certainly cool for presentations, but it's a terrible format for an essay.