Animation talks

Animation in interface design is the use of motion to show change: elements appearing, moving, transforming or responding to input. It ranges from small micro-interactions, like a button reacting to a tap, to larger transitions between screens, and is often called motion design.

For UI and UX work, animation is more than decoration. Purposeful motion can guide attention, explain spatial relationships, confirm that an action worked and give a product personality. It can also be overused, slowing people down or causing discomfort, so knowing when and how to animate is a design skill in its own right.

The talks here, recorded between 2013 and 2018, cover that skill from several angles. Val Head’s Designing Meaningful Animation (beyond tellerrand, 2016) and Rachel Nabors’s Animating the User Experience (beyond tellerrand, 2015) focus on animation in UX. Adrian Zumbrunnen’s Designing Motion: Smart Transitions in UI Design (UX Salon, 2015) and Mike Alderson’s Motion Design (Here London, 2015) look at motion and transitions, while Benjamin De Cock’s Motion & Playfulness explores the playful side. Tim Kadlec’s The Space Between (beyond tellerrand, 2014) and Bret Victor’s Stop Drawing Dead Fish complete the set. Sub-topics include transitions and stop motion. Patterns like morphing controls and input feedback show animation at work in the UI-Patterns.com library.