Today, animation has become an inseparable component of web designing because it is an effective tool to attract the attention of the visitors. In general, when designing a website from the very first impressions in the form of aesthetically appealing and inviting graphics that grab one’s attention and the other parts of the website through proper transitions achieved through animation, should be the ultimate aim of any website designer in order to keep a visitor glued to the site.
With an increasing number of websites being developed and posted on the internet, the less time a visitor is willing to spend on one site, not to mention the site of their own. This is where the animations can come in really handy and help you differentiate yourself while capturing the attention of the visitor.
Therefore, in case you are on the lookout on how to integrate animation smartly, which can make more people visit the website, as well as accepting it and ultimately becoming the customers, then do read this article of ours, I am sure that you will be amazed.
Animation is defined as one of the most effective techniques to be used to capture the visitor’s attention and encourage them. It can be used to raise the general level of participation which in its turn helps the target audience to comprehend and recognize the brand.
For instance a clothing firm may use animations and or visual graphics to pass information about the firms’ clothings and how to wear or use them in our day to day activities.
Animation is not as simple as it can be thought to be, which is why it has many branches. It also includes the establishment of the relationship between the brand and the customers on the emotional level. If made organized, animation can give a feeling of trust, excitement, and relatability as far as the message a site wishes to portray is concerned.
For example, seeing an animation of a product that one can use daily may make the product look familiar and appealing; thus, contract chances of the visitor or the customer converting are high. With all these small changes, it becomes evident that emotional connections can be transformed into loyal customers, and this can assist with the retention aspect as well.
In today’s world time is the most crucial commodity, thus the focus is made on the user experience. This must be done while ensuring that the website is easy to locate and at the same time, aesthetically appealing to the visitors. When considering the benefits of the application of animation towards betterment of the user experience, there is the aspect of interaction realism.
For example, during the mouseover of buttons or links, slight animations can be used to ensure that the users take note of them. Just as with the animation of the transition between the pages, the use of animation may also have the advantage of arriving at the creation of a website that is easier to navigate and more enjoyable.
It is very important to note that while increasing engagement using feedback such as visual feedback is a noble idea, this should not be overdone. More use of animations may be inconveniencing to the users, and the impact may make the site difficult to navigate. It is suggested that animated images should be used mainly where this option will have the greatest impact excluding the aesthetic one.
For example, a slight bouncy look on a call to action button would help in attracting attention to it; but it would not be obtrusive. However, continuous motion or brilliant effects are an eyesore, a cyberspace motion sickness that may cause the users to lose their focus on why they came to the site in the first place and exit the site.
The essence of web animations is based on time. There can be fast animations, which can be quite irritating at times while at the same time there can be slow animations, which can make the user feel stuck. The aim is to maintain a sweet spot to not overdo stuff and keep the animations intact following the visual appeal.
For example, a loading animation should be as fast as possible to inform the users of the progress made, but not so fast that it will make the users think loading is complete. Animations should be applied where they will be most valuable.
A reasonable response rate of a website is one of the significant factors that is taken under consideration while designing any website especially while using animations with it. If animations are not optimized correctly, they could be very slow, and any time that is added to the loading time would discourage the users from revisiting the page. To prevent this, there are a number of animations that have to be pre-optimized for the best performance.
CSS animations are preferred over JavaScripts, even though the language being quite versatile. CSS animations are usually faster and smoother than those created by JavaScript, most of the time. That is why CSS animations are most appropriate where apparent effects are needed, such as hover effects, transitions, and keyframe effects.
JavaScript, in turn, has more possibilities and is more versatile, although it is used with more resources in many instances. This is useful for animations that need a particular sort of control, like buttons or any other animation.
The other two methods that can be used to enhance the outcome of the animations on your website are known as precise loading and Basic Progression. Precise loading is the form of loading where animations are only loaded when they are required such as scrolling to a given section. This helps reduce the amount of time that one needs to wait for other objects to load on a page. Therefore, all other objects that are not relevant to the current page that is being loaded are prohibited from loading.
In Basic Progression, one develops a straightforward structure of the website, which is functional but devoid of animation, and then adds animation for users with current-generation browsers and fast connections. This way the possibility to have at least one user complaining about slow connection and a less powerful device to access such content is eliminated.
A website can be accessed on any device, be it a pc or a mobile phone. So it is essential to consider how your animations will appear on any device regardless of the screen size. This is a form of designing in which we have the arrangement of different web views which, at some point in the future, will align perfectly with varying sizes of screen and be ideally in harmony in the end. On top of that in the same concept of adaptive design, one can design other interfaces of the website for different devices in order to make their respective animations as perfect as possible, so far as the performance indicators are concerned.
For example, an animation, which could be broken down to the last detail, appears well on the desktop version of the website but may take a bit much from the performance of the mobile device. In such cases, it is important to use basic style and type of animation.
The welcoming animations can be very helpful particularly when they are used to welcome users as they open your website. These animations range from excellent 3D animation where visitors are guided around your site to silly hover effects where a button is clicked and it gets highlighted.
For example, the animation that can be used to greet the users can be a character familiar to the users, and the character can conclude by presenting the brand and taking the users to significant areas of the site. This makes the users have a good impression about the sites and they feel free to surf the sites that they are interested in.
Transition based animations can greatly enhance usability while helping avoid any interruption of the user experience. If the users navigate from one page to another or different parts of one page, they will experience a seamless transition or continuity.
For instance, the sliding or fading transitional effects that make the user move from one section to another without making him feel uncomfortable or if a user is working on a given page and a link brings a new page, a change like fading out will be most preferable and usually improves the overall aesthetics of the site’s visual appeal.
Micro animations are small animations that let the users know that they are being responded with respect to their actions on the website. They can be, for example, a color-changing button after it has been clicked, a form field that vibrates or jitters after the wrong data is entered, or a notification/chat now badge that shakes when a new message has been received. These small animations make users more engaged and provide instructions to the users on how to interact with the website.
For example, when a user adds an item to his cart by clicking on a symbol of a shopping cart, the emblem can shake to reassure the client that the action was a success.
Although the application of animation enhances the usability of the interface by alot, it is necessary to remember that too much animated stuff and motion all around could be misleading. It is just important to have an animation but at the same time the content aspect is equally important.
For example, if your site has many bright or flashy animated objects, you can overshadow your brand and in one way or another, spoil the overall view of your site. The most significant idea here is to keep the regularity of the site and apply the animation as a helping hand that adds on to the visual appeal and not take anything away from it.
Animations have to be perfectly in sync with each other to deliver a good experience to the users. For example, a small micro animation that shows a sequence of activities can be more understood than many texts and paragraphs of information. In the same way, in an advertisement or a showcase of a certain product, animated visual clues can help people grasp the information about a topic or an event faster. When such contents are backed up with nicely animated effects, then it is possible to turn the specific website given into an educative or an interesting one.
Not all users like animations, instead they may only like static images this is why the results may vary to an extent. Since the audience present is relatively large and versatile, it is always good to consider using some non-animated styles such as text, pictures or other pictures that depict what the animation displays.
For example, if theres a video on the website which explains stuff using animations such as the example given above, then it becomes really important to make sure that the animations are backed by plenty of texts in contrast to what is being displayed.
In short one of the most crucial aspects that must be taken into consideration is the usability and availability while using animations on the websites. In this way, some users may have certain eye complications or may have some issues, for example, one can have seizures or motion sickness. All the animations that are to be embedded onto the website along with the transitions and effects must be done in a manner which appeals to the eyes of the visitor and make the web design overall a visual treat for the visitors to revisit.
Animation as a feature can also act as a bridge between user interaction and making the use of the web and other elements a wholesome experience. Thus, using animation should be done with particular care and attention such as the timing of the animation, the performance, and user preferences.
Therefore, by adhering to the guidelines of creating outstanding, high functionality websites along with timely and precise optimization of animation and content, one can be sure of the fact that the site will be able to provide a great easy of use to the users and visitors. When using animation within web design, we must always make sure that it adds to the overall appeal to the site.
