Animated Elements
From full-screen moving images to small hover effects, touches of animation are popping up everywhere. Animation is trendy, fun and user friendly.
The obstacles to using animation have started to fall. With most users on high-speed connections and the ease of creating anything from simple movements or a silly gif to several minutes of action, animations have become practical and useful web design tools.
Animation in web design is something that we are starting to see more of every day. The key to animation as a design trend is moderation. Small, simple animations are engaging and interesting; the user might not even think about their being an animation at all. Large-scale animations can be an interesting visual that pull you into the design. But if you start mixing up too many different moving effects, it can cause complete chaos.
What makes animation trendy is realism. In today’s design landscape with so many flat and minimal style designs, users need more cues to tell them what to do. Simple bits of animation can guide the user without changing the aesthetic. It helps add instruction and order to design schemes that may be too simple visually to provide enough direction for users. In this instance animation creates a happy medium between stripped-down simplicity and usability.
