From the beginning of time, we have enjoyed watching cartoons. So, seeing something animate has always been enjoyable for viewers. Luckily, we can now view animations that can transform boring statics to spring into life.
Interestingly, different organizations have incorporated this animation concept into their UI designs to help the viewers understand better. A mere animation can increase customer engagement even with all the graphics and colors. Besides, animations have evolved greatly to perfectly suit modern web or interface designs.
So, the impact of UI animations at present is immense, with a single goal – to enhance user experience and interaction while conveying the brand’s message.
Why is UI Animation Important?
UI animation is important because it serves as a visual and non-textual means for designers to guide users and highlight key actions. It brings the users to attention to important calls-to-action (CTAs) or instructs them on the next steps without relying on written instructions.
Moreover, UI animation allows cross-cultural communication by directing users where to interact with the interface. This ensures that users can easily understand where to click or tap, regardless of language.
Additionally, UI animation can provide context, create familiarity, and maintain consistency, making it easier for users to navigate and interact with a digital product.
So, to summarize, UI Animation will lead to:
- Improvement in User Experience
- Emphasize Visual Feedback
- Guiding User Interaction to the Brand
Uses and Goals of UI Animations
UI animations can lead visitors through sales processes, arrange page elements, provide guidance, alert users to changes, and perform other tasks that boost engagement.
From the beginning of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), designers have creatively integrated animations to enhance their user interfaces. While animations have some limitations, UI designers still find them an effective medium for improving the user experience.
In addition, UI animations enhance a webpage by making it functional or visually appealing. Without animation, static pages are dull, leading to high bounce rates and low conversion of visitors into customers.
6 Prominent Types of UI Animation
Primarily, you will come across four main types of UI animations, but there are others.
1. Loading and Progress:
Loading animations signify ongoing system activity, preventing user abandonment, while progress indicators, like a checkout flow’s animated progress bar, guide users through completion.
2. State Changes:
Animations communicate digital product states; for instance, a button transitioning from inactive to active after form completion. Such visual cues enhance user understanding and interaction within the interface.
3. Structure & Navigation:
Navigational UI animations clarify the product’s structure, providing a more enjoyable user experience by guiding users and highlighting relevant information.
4. Microinteractions:
Microinteractions use UI animations to convey feedback based on user actions or system changes, like mobile text notifications and digital product responses to scrolling for better user interaction.
Micro-interactions in UI animations are detailed through four distinct stages:
- Trigger: This is initiated by either a user action or a change in the system state.
- Conditions: These are the system-defined rules for which micro-interaction will be triggered based on specific circumstances.
- Feedback: This stage involves visual, audio, or haptic changes in the user interface. It provides users with a response to their action or the system state change, making the interaction more dynamic and responsive.
- Mode: This stage comes into play once the micro-interaction is complete. It involves the transition to a new state or a change in the user interface, indicating the outcome of the interaction.
5. Branding:
Animations serve as effective tools for brand promotion, offering a lighthearted and welcoming appeal. Incorporating fun logo animations helps create brand awareness and fosters positive and memorable user interaction.
6. Creating Moods:
Using animation and motion design, infuse a distinctive mood, spirit, or energy into your digital experience. Whether crafting the ambiance for a website’s landing page or captivating users with vibrant colors, patterns, and movement, animation can delight and inspire. These moods engage users’ visual and auditory senses, aligning with a brand’s ethos.
Things to Consider When Implementing UI Animations
Before getting down to business by sorting out the design or planning the UI animations, the designer needs to keep in mind some important factors that would ensure that they succeed in increasing user engagement.
- The designs should have a distinctive purpose and convey information effectively, educating users with informative content.
- The designs should be practical and inconspicuous, avoiding distractions and irritations to minimize the cognitive burden on users.
- Before making animations, the design should be done to play a crucial role in successfully offering pertinent information and context to guide users seamlessly through their journey.
- The designs need to mirror the brand’s visual identity, ensuring all UI elements’ unified and visually harmonious appearance.
- Using the UI animation, the designer has to captivate and motivate users, fostering engagement and inspiration throughout the user experience.
- Subtle animations often have a more significant impact than flashy ones. Prioritise animations that enhance the user experience without overshadowing the content.
- Optimize animations for performance to prevent website or app slowdowns. Heavy animations can negatively impact user experience, so ensure smooth scrolling on all devices.
- Maintain a consistent animation style and timing throughout the design to help users understand the interface and foster a cohesive experience.
Animation vs Motion Graphics
Both of them move – but not in the same way! Check out their differences to understand what you are working on for the design.
| Features | UI Animation | Motion Graphics |
| Definition | Adds motion to enhance user experience on digital platforms. | Focuses on bringing graphic elements to life, often without directly improving user interaction. |
| Purpose | Improving user interaction and experience on a digital platform to increase user engagement. | Enhancing visual appeal by animating graphic elements for visual interest. |
| Application | Used to create seamless transitions, feedback, and micro-interactions in UI. | Applied in marketing, branding, and storytelling, often in non-interactive contexts. |
| Implementations | Essential for an engaging and functional user interface. | More about visual storytelling, less directly tied to user interaction, and offers a graphic appeal. |
| Considerations | It should be implemented thoughtfully to avoid negative impacts on user experience. | Emphasises visual appeal without the same level of user interaction consideration. |
UI Animation Examples
Take some inspiration and learn how these outstanding UI animations were successful and worth listing as examples.
1. E-commerce Control UI Animation:
Dannniel’s shoe-selling UI animation enhances one-handed control for selecting sizes and colours, streamlining the shopping experience, especially on mobile.
2. Colorful Intuition in Budget App:
Tubik’s budgeting app gamifies financial management with motion and colour, making budgeting enjoyable and user-friendly.
3. Google Material Design:
It allows the use of motion to establish a unified and user-friendly interface. Through subtle animations, elements respond to touch, and the transitions between screens are seamless.
4. Transition from Left to Right
In this one, the left option demonstrates a straightforward transition from the list or menu to a specific item screen, while the right introduces dynamics to enhance the process.
5. Apple’s iOS
In iOS, animations craft an intuitive and aesthetically pleasing experience. The parallax effect on the home screen and the smooth transitions between apps add a feeling of depth and enhance user engagement.
Some Notable UI Animations
The Blinking Cursor (1967)- To identify locations without a cursor
Windows XP Download Screen (2001)- a better experience while waiting for downloads
The Mac Beach Ball Loading Icon (2001)- An interesting design that made the user feel calm during system disruptions
Best UI Animation Tools for Great Modern Designs
To facilitate your design schemes with the best animations, try using these brilliant animation tools that offer a wide range of features.
- Adobe After Effects- Suitable for Visual Effects, Motion Graphics, and Animations
- Principal- Aids to create interactive screen animations to present the UI design
- Origami- Perfect to create an interactive UI animation
- Invision Studio- A prototyping design tool to create presentations for clients with a free trial, including mobile
- Flinto- Helps to develop prototypes for apps and websites and also After Effects with visuals
Final Words
Thus, to make more customers show interest in you, use animations for the UI designs. While animations can seem fancy and not essential, current trends demand them to become a permanent component of web designs.
From fun little animations that entertain and help users to smooth transitions that make tricky tasks easier, animation brings life and character to online interfaces. When used with intention and care, animation can boost user interfaces, making them practical but also interesting and enjoyable. As we see changes in UI design, animation will stay at the heart of shaping the exciting future of digital experiences.
Need help in creating your UI designs and animations? Talk to us today to book an appointment with our expert designers!
