How Сan UX Animations Help a Business?

By John Adebimitan

UX animations are part of UX design. In fact, the entire modern addiction to social networks, endless applications, games, and everything that a smartphone fills our leisure time with is built on dopamine addiction. Dopamine is provided by colorful animated pictures, flashing buttons, and prompts. If you want to take your place among the giants of the industry, then animations are a must for use in web portal development.

The Role Of UX Animations In UX Design

Animations in UX are part of the user experience, bridging beauty and functionality. How does the user feel? The purpose of UX animation is not so much to entertain the user, but to give him an understanding of what is happening on the screen (for example, loading a page, processing an order, etc.) and how to use the system most effectively.

How does this work for business? UX animations often encourage the user to perform or complete an action, enhance the usability component of the resource, and cause satisfaction from the action taken.

UX animations make transitions between states more visual, create a sense of reality of what is happening, and involve the user in this process. They explain to users the relationships between elements, their hierarchy, and the role of each element in a particular state.

To combine both of these benefits, each animation element should serve a specific, explainable, and measurable purpose and guide the user through your property.

Such goals could be:

  • User orientation to the resource (explicit and hidden action panels)
  • Performing a new action (save, edit)
  • Magnifying objects (viewing photos in the gallery, working with selection elements)
  • A visual cue to the user (works well in interfaces with unusual types of navigation)
  • Highlighting (an important element from others on the screen)
  • Visual feedback (highlighting buttons for feedback), etc.

Two Types of UX Animations

In the process of web portal development, a good UX designer knows exactly when to insert animations to enhance usability. According to the time they appear on the screen, UX animations are divided into two types:

  • Animations as the user performs an action
  • Animations after a completed action

UX Animations That Appear During The Process

Animations of this type are quite capable of manipulating user behavior. They literally push him to click, write, buy, move on, etc. This function is performed by micro animations of forms, pictures, and other elements.

Sometimes these animations can be added with some “humanity”: a vertical movement can indicate agreement, and a horizontal movement can indicate refusal, just like a person moving his head to say “Yes” or “No.” In most cases, such animations are immediately intuitive to users.

Emotional UX Animations

This includes animations that appear at a certain moment after an action performed by the user. They stimulate the production of dopamine in the user’s brain. Thus, he receives confirmation: “You’re doing great! You did it! You’ve achieved your goal! Continue!”

They were used at the dawn of PC development in early versions of Windows. Many people remember the animated assistant, paperclip, dog, cat, or wizard that helped users navigate the system. The characters answered the user’s questions and suggested how to perform this or that action. They praised users for successfully completing them.

The user could call the animated character at the right time or leave it active by default. Today, UX animations don’t give users an “opt-out” option; they are ubiquitous without seeming intrusive. On the contrary, the user himself is happy about the praise/bonus/stars and is ready to come back again and again for a dose of pleasure.

Main Principles Of UX Animations

By following the principles of UX animations, you can create a beautiful and functional product. Let’s look at them.

  1. Smoothness. The animated object behaves exactly as the user expects it and exactly at the moment when he expects it.
  2. Offset and delay. Using these techniques, users can understand the hierarchical relationships between animations and their purpose. For example, part of an animated object may be of an informational nature, while the other part may serve an entertaining role. The user feels this intuitively.
  3. Connections and influence. This technique creates temporary spatial hierarchical connections through interaction with various objects. With this type of animation, one of the objects is consistently the main one, and the second appears at certain moments and helps the user perform the desired action.
  4. Transformation. This technique creates a constant interaction between the user and the interface by transforming the appearance of interface elements. This technique attracts attention, tells a story, and helps the user understand that their action led to a result.
  5. Changing values. This technique creates a visual dialogue with the user, showing him exactly what is happening during his interaction with the system in specific, measurable numbers. Objects of measurement can be time, money, points in a game, tracking steps in fitness, and business metrics.
  6. Mask. This changes the function of the button depending on the shape it takes. Widely used in the design of podcasts and players, with one type of interface, the user can start/stop music, and with another – select a folder, album, or audio recording.
  7. Layers. They create convenience for the user by overlaying several layers of an object on top of one another. The technique allows you to use multi-layering instead of creating expensive 3D animations. In addition, this technique saves space and makes the interface truly “alive”.
  8. Cloning. This technique involves the user in interaction by creating several new elements from the first starting element. The very appearance of additional objects tells a story, creates interaction, evokes an emotional response, and directs user attention.

Wrapping It Up

UX animations are beautiful and have a big impact on the user experience. The most important and challenging part of creating UX animations is understanding when they are really needed and using them to your advantage so as not to overwhelm the user. This is why it is extremely important to involve professionals in the project. We recommend contacting Digiteum if you are planning web portal development using animations.

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