Why Motion Design Will Transform Your UI

Motion design is no longer restricted to aesthetics, and is now changing how users interact with brands and digital products by making a user’s interactions streamlined and intuitive. Companies are focused on storytelling, and are aiming to tell better narratives about themselves. This focus on messaging, and an experience-focused user make motion design an essential part of modern UI. Motion tells stories. And designers are beginning to think about these moments of interaction right from the start.

Motion design helps create a pleasant and intuitive user interface, and Chris Converse, designer and developer at Codify Design Studio, thinks that“Animation continues to play in integral role in both enhancing user experiences, as well as adding a powerful option for visual storytelling. As interface and user-experience design continues to command more of a designer’s time, the need to to take more control over animating, or mocking-up transitions for interface design, will increase as well.”

When used appropriately, motion design can guide a user’s experience with your digital product, while conveying a message about your brand. You can align animation to your user’s needs in order to add value and improve different aspects of their interactions.

Creating Visual Cues

Motion design can guide the user through an app or web experience, using animations to intuitively communicate where to focus, what to do next, or what is the most important on a page. Using deliberate motion can both acknowledge user input, and help them navigate through information without losing their bearings. Using motion revamps navigation to make it natural or even abstract. Motion is intuitive, and can bring life into the interface while maintaining context.

Responsive Gestures

Users are beginning to anticipate interfaces that are fluid, and responsive. When users are unsure about an element’s function, they tend to hover there over it. Good UI capitalizes off of this intuition and comes to life by providing the user with instant feedback, like a hover animation. This enables their browsing experience to remain uninterrupted, answering any questions as soon as they arise. Craig Dehner, the UI and motion designer behind the Kinetic UI says that “Your designs come alive when they respond to touch and deep connections are made when they respond in delightful ways.”

Providing “Seamless” Transitions

Motion design can help users understand the flow between two things, which also makes navigation user-friendly. In addition to this, motion can be used to either entertain or distract as one feature transitions into the next. Animations can hold the user’s attention while creating the illusion of speed, making them more likely to wait patiently for their content.

Establishing Character

Your use of motion design can also reinforce your brand’s identity within your digital product. Movement strongly impacts how someone’s personality is perceived, and Nick Schiefer and Drew Hansen of Effective UI emphasize that the personality of motion even translates to interface: “Motion also adds another layer of depth to an interface’s character, which invokes a higher emotional response than static visuals. When one thinks about an individual’s personality, one thinks about body language and how the person moves. The same can be said for how one perceives the motion in an interface.” Motion design can ensure that digital interactions stay true to your brand, and resonate with the consumer.

Motion design is a creative way to convey a coherent narrative that will stick with consumers, and is an integral part of user-friendly UI. Just be sure that your animations are purposeful and subtle to provide the use with an awesome experience.

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