Web Animations and Web Animation Tools to Use for Your Web App
Web animations really do make a difference when it comes to bettering users’ experience and optimizing their interaction with a web app.
Aside from adding to the appearance of a web app, web animations can contribute to the quality of interaction with web app users, which is often the reason users continue to use a specific web app and stay loyal to the brand.
However, before incorporating animations into your web app, you should consider the goals you are aiming to reach – an aesthetically pleasing design being just one of them.
Although they look appealing and can attract users’ attention, there is more to them than their appearance. It is their functionality and ways in which they can be of service to your users that count.
Animation elements can help your web app do the following:
- attract and keep users’ attention
- interact with its users
- simplify information for its users
- help users navigate a web app
- guide users in processes requiring more steps
- offer feedback during actions users’ take
If you’re ready to create a more engaging web app experience, the following lists of web animations and animation tools will prove to be quite useful.
Web Animations
1. Animations of step-by-step operations
Let’s say you want to visually illustrate a process like how a user can purchase your services, or you’re your company creates its product. The simplest way to easily outline a process involving several steps is to use step-by-step animation. From spelling out the process of placing an order to demonstrating a step by step horse drawing, there’s no limit to what kind of animations you can create for your web app.
2. Wait aimations
No user enjoys waiting. However, when needed, this process can be made more tolerable by implementing an animation to indicate the waiting period. This assures the user that the action they took is progressing. Some of the more popular wait animations include a spinner, a loading bar, and an hourglass animation. These are often used with file downloads, sign-in procedures, and financial transactions.
3. Direction of attention
Users are highly sensitive to any kind of movement taking place on their computer or phone screen. This makes it easy for web apps to use animation that draws attention to a particular element. One way to do this is to use an animation of a cursor moving across the elements a company wants its users to look at.
4. Action-reaction animations
Users find it very helpful if their actions are followed by a visual confirmation assuring them they are on the right path when interacting with a web app. Therefore, a simple animation providing feedback on the action taken helps build users’ trust and confidence.
5. Page scrolling animations
Page or content scroll is one of the simplest ways to keep users encouraged to browse the content further. As with social media apps, product or service web apps can make it convenient for their users to stay engaged in the interaction with their content for longer periods of time and on the go.
6. Transition animations
This type of animation allows users to notice the transition they are making while looking at different screens on the website. The users will be informed of where they were when starting to move through the content, and where they arrived after having gone through it.
7. Storytelling animation
Storytelling has always been one of the top engaging tools in marketing. It helps users develop an emotional bond with the interface they are interacting with, which in turn leads to users gaining trust and developing a positive attitude toward the content they are looking at. An animation providing the story behind a service or a product offered on a web app can really make a difference to the overall user experience.
The next step in implementing some of these web animations and improving the interaction with the web app users is choosing the right kind of animation tool. Here are some of the tools that assist web app owners in employing new ways of interacting with their target audience.
Animation Tools
1. Anime
Anime is a JavaScript animation library supporting API. CSS, SVG, DOM attributes, Individual Transforms and JavaScript Objects. Anime allows users to create timelines and basic animations in which objects are moved back and forth, as well as more advanced animations in which an element can be restyled with an action.
2. SmoothState.js
SmoothState.js supports CSS animations and JS animation libraries (e.g. velocity.js). It helps its users achieve a smooth transition into requested content by using the time it takes for a server to deliver it to show elements entering and exiting the page during navigation. Consequently, web app users stay attentive and present while waiting for the content to show.
3. iTyped
iTyped is one of the smallest (only 2KB in size) and simplest libraries to use to create animated typing for web apps. It has no dependencies and doesn’t make use of JQuery internally. It can be entered in any string and types at the speed you set, then backspaces and starts a new sentence. It draws users’ attention and keeps them interested in what’s coming next, encouraging them to spend more time with the web app content.
4. Kute.js
If you’re in need of complex animations that CSS3 transitions and other animated engines are unable to create, KUTE.js is a really fast animation engine that possesses a broad set of tools and functions for any kind of browser and property. It supports 3D transforms, SVG Morph, draw SVG, SVG transform, and more.
5. Ola.js
Praised for its immaculately smooth animated transitions, Ola.js is an animation library for interpolating numbers in real-time. It can be used with multiple values and dimensions, and with many independent instances. There are three operations that can be run using Ola.js: an instance can be created, and it can be set to update and to read.
6. Starability.css
As mentioned earlier, users’ feedback is of utmost importance to improving web app interaction and design. Therefore, Starability.css is a good animation tool choice in helping incorporate a feedback option into a web app. It offers a user-friendly rating form featuring appealing animations. The ratings are in HTML and CSS and are keyboard accessible. Starability.css is simple to implement and handy for collecting useful feedback.
7. Ember Burger Menu
The ease of web app navigation can be achieved through the use of this off-canvas CSS transition-based sidebar component offering various animations and styles. With Ember Burger Menu, even custom animations can be created easily through mixing and matching menu item animations. Web app users benefit from an easy-to-navigate design and are able to reach the information they need more efficiently.
Conclusion
The implementation of web animations and the use of web animation tools has never been simpler. However, for that same reason, it is more important than ever to take into account the goals web app owners want to achieve using the animations.
Although eye-catching and entertaining, the ultimate goal of any web app animation should be the optimization of user experience and simplification of information shared and web app actions taken.
If used improperly, web app animations could lead to web apps not functioning smoothly and users feeling frustrated. Therefore, ensure you use animations and animation tools wisely to enhance your user journey.