5 Ways to Delight Users with Animation

Importances of Delightful Animation

Digital design plays a vital role in how customers experience a product. Modern design is highly focused on usability because usability allows people to accomplish their goals easily. However, design for the user experience has a lot more to it than making a good product. Good design is pleasurable and seductive. Good design is delightful. At this point in experience design evolution, satisfaction ought to be the norm, and delight ought to be the goal. Animation can help you achieve the goal.

Animation Can Help To Create Delightful Moments

1. Make a Good Impression

People judge things based on how it looks. The good animation throughout the on boarding flow has a high impact on how first-time users will engage with the app. A good first impression is not just about usability, and it’s also about personality. If your first few app screens look a little different from similar products, you will show the user that your entire product experience likely is different too. For example, animating an illustration for a new feature can educate the user about the feature in a memorable way.

2. Make your Interfaces Feel more Alive

Creative animation can make user experience truly delightful. They can transform familiar interactions into something much more enjoyable and have the power to encourage users to interact. Attention to little movements can increase the level of usability and therefore desirability of the product.

3. Incorporate Emotional Interactions

Focusing on user emotions plays a tremendous role in user interface interactions. Personality is the mysterious force that attracts us to certain people and repels us from others. Using animation we can establish an emotional connection with your users, and recall them that there are real humans behind this design.

4. Make a Complex Task Feel Easier

The animation can transform a complex task into a delightful experience. Let’s take an example of MailChimp case for inspiration. What makes MailChimp impressive is its smooth functionality wrapped in humor and friendly animation. When you are about to send out the first campaign, the accompanying animation shows how stressful it is. Mailchimp brings understanding to the design by combining animated cartoons with tongue in cheek messages. MailChimp softens the nervousness of sending your first emails.

5. Breathe Fun into the Interactions

People like to discover treats in interfaces just as they do in real life. The joy is more than the treat, and it’s the discovery of the threat and the feeling that someone took the time to think.

When to Use Delightful Animation

There are two cases when implementing animation into your digital designs:

1. Engaging and Entertaining

Delightful animation draws attention to our design by creating a strong first impression. It can make the design more memorable and more shareable.

2. Baking Emotion in Design

Showing the human side of your business can be a compelling way for your audience to identify and empathize with you. The aim of the emotional design is to create happiness. You want people to feel happy when they use your product.