How animations elevate the experience of a website

Functional Animations bring your websites to life, and I will be talking about how important they are in this article.

Introduction

Most people would think of animation as Disney, 2D and 3D animations. Animations in digital/web design are quite a different thing. These animations, also called functional animations, are used mainly in user interfaces to enhance the user experience whilst using a website, or an application. One might think a well-designed website is all that is required, but most often than not, there are subtle contributing factors that play a big role that you might not have noticed.

Animation is communication

Animation allows for digital and web experiences to be communicated with users. These experiences could come in different forms and for different purposes. Animation is one of the main ways for websites to communicate in a visual and seamless way, allowing for a more dynamic and lifelike experience.

Life is not static, and is full of visuals, with motion being the core of our lives. Animation allows the technology in this case, the website, to come to life. Life communicates with us through small and large motions, and we try to replicate these experiences on websites with the use of animations.

Functional Animations

Not all websites have animations, but almost every web app that you enjoy using will have some form of animation. These animations are often used in interactions of the website/app, on interfaces or when you hover your mouse over them. These are called functional animations. They may seem like small unimportant things, but they play a very big role in the user experience of the website/app. Imagine you are reading a book, and you turn the page, you will certainly see yourself doing that motion. It tells you that the action of page-turning is happening. Visual feedback and response are often desired by users, This applies to websites/apps as well. Animations in interactive elements provide a short transition time for you to understand what is happening on the screen. They can also tell you that you have interacted with the correct element(s) since they have an animation that usually starts from the point you interacted.

There are some very clear benefits to using functional animations on websites/apps:

• Functional/transition animations when done well will make you feel confident in a website. Good transition animations are not always present in all websites/apps but when they are present, and done well, they will make the experience smooth and effortless. They help you transition through the content and to different places of the website/app.
• They help you to understand what is happening on the screen and that you are doing the right thing.
• They create a more dynamic experience compared to everything being static.
• More often than not, they bring joy when interacting with elements.

Animation in mind of real life

Animations provide visual communication towards the users, and thus this also means that it is very relatable to real life.

Too much random and messy motions in real life can cause real annoyance and confusion, and based on the type of motion, our emotions changes accordingly as well. This is the same for transition animations used in websites/animations. Too many animations will create a visual overload for the user, especially with animations that don\’t have a clear transition. Transition animations should ideally be used as minimal as possible, and only use if it enhances the user\’s experience.

These motions most of the time should be kept short and quick, as you wouldn\’t really want to wait for too long for certain actions to happen. If there is content and information that is useful to the user after the animation, then it is advised to keep it short for a more snappy experience. That being said, there is no rule as to how long the animations should be, and they should all be crafted to fit the experience the website/app is trying to provide. Function-focused websites would want quicker animations, whilst storytelling and experience-focused websites might choose to have a more drawn-out animation.

Summary

Functional/transition animations are always recommended, though there are cases like government websites that would want to keep everything as flat as possible. Make your website/app come to life with transition animations, even if just a little, they will level up the experience by a lot.