Universal Principles of UX

77

Animate responsibly.

The first example of a functional animation in an interface goes back to 1985, when Brad Myers presented a paper on “percent-done progress indicators,” which found that when the computer provides a visual cue about its progress on a task, the experience of waiting becomes more bearable to users. This research gave birth to the progress bar and all other functional animations that followed.

Decorative animations, on the other hand, serve no real functional purpose. When done effectively, they attract the user’s attention and tell a story, but when done poorly, they can be annoying, distract users from their goals, and prevent them from completing their task.

When we were working on our self-initiated and self-funded interactive ...