Transitions talks

Transitions are the animated changes between two states of an interface: a panel sliding in, a card expanding into a full view, a button turning into a progress indicator. Done well, they show people where things came from and where they went, so a change on screen feels connected rather than abrupt.

In UX design, transitions help maintain context, signal cause and effect, and make an interface easier to follow. Poorly chosen ones slow people down or distract them.

The talk here is Designing Motion: Smart Transitions in UI Design by Adrian Zumbrunnen, recorded at UX Salon in 2015, which looks at how to design motion and transitions that support the user interface. Patterns such as morphing controls in the UI-Patterns.com library depend on this kind of smooth state change.