The Motion Commotion


In user experience design, motion is an interesting way to capture attention, essence of the context and capture emotion through interactions. 

Motion design is all about telling a micro story to your users.

However, this gets really boring, uncalled for and redundant once users get used to the interface / application, as no one likes to see constant animations on every click or touch every single time they use the interface. (well, I'm not the user and I'm the user) 

For example, when you add even a roti to your order, Zomato does a celebration. What? Just because you have After Effects? Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you need to do it. 

Do trivial things call for a celebration?   

This is what I call the motion commotion.

Motion design needs to be driven by purpose.

Contrary to serving its purpose of delighting the user, the motion components start to feel amateurish, repetitive and lose their purpose in the long run.

As designers, we need to use the power of motion with caution and avoid any probable commotion on an interface. Motion should also go hand in hand with the context, controls, labels and UX writing. Motion should act as a natural and intuitive extension of the interaction. You can't say something and animate the elements to mean something else.

If you ask me, motion works best in scenarios like onboarding first-time users, rewards, accomplishments, special days, confirmation acknowledgements, and notifying on key task completions.

Using motion in error messages and notifications can be overwhelming and only augments anxiety, based on my experience as a user and product designer. Motion could be used to nudge users when their attention is required to proceed with subsequent tasks.

I think products should seek attention only when really required, or else the concept of attention through animated interaction is a lost cause.

Best to avoid motion, unless the benefits outweigh the risk of repetition and irrelevance. Users get smarter with every interaction of your interface. That is what you want them to become, when they use your interface, right? Smart!

Use motion to move people, not to move them away!

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