Animation in web design is a trend that is constantly developing over time, with subtle changes transforming the purpose, and style of animation to match different design trends. This means that there are a number of different animation options to choose from, and selecting the best possible design for your website, and brand, can be a challenge. Knowing how to use the animation purposefully and effectively can also be overwhelming too. But here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we are Manchester’s leading web design experts. And we work with companies and businesses across the region, from Blackburn and Stockport, to provide top quality web design solutions that really stand out. As a result, we have produced this guide to effective animation choices for your web design.
Considerations for your animation design
When choosing the right animation for your website, there are some important considerations to bear in mind. These include:
- The purpose of the animation- Why are you using animation on your website? And what are trying to feature? Answering these questions will help you use animation more thoughtfully, which should result in a more professional and polished finished product.
- The style of your website- Different websites, like the different companies behind them have different personalities and styles. The style of your animation needs to fit with your overall web design to create a cohesive and visually attractive website.
- The user experience- Even if your animation has a purpose, this doesn’t necessarily mean it will enhance the user experience. In fact, animation for the sake of animation will likely have a negative impact instead. So you should make sure that any animation that is used, will be useful and helpful. Not just visually appealing.
Effective animation choices for your web design
Once you have answered the above questions, you can start to design your animation. This will involve making some specific choices about the style of the animation, as well as where to apply it. Effective animation choices will include:
- Subtle animation– in the web design world, less is often more. Minimalist design is a popular design option, because it works. Your potential customers dont want to be cluttered with information and content. Instead, they want to be able to move through the website quickly and easily. Animation should aid this, by being subtle, and not too distracting.
- Well planned animation- animation should be used to aid the progress of your potential customers, as they move through your website. So when planning, you will need to understand the key elements of your web design, or the features that your users will be looking for, and then find ways to use subtle animation to ensure that these features stand out, and grab attention.
- Animating the right elements- using animation effectively is all about improving the user experience. For that reason, you should only animate certain visual features. Animation shouldn’t be applied to blocks of text, or to captions, because this would make them incredibly difficult to read. Linked images, navigation buttons and loading bars though can be very effective features to animate.
For more information or advice, get in touch with Manchester’s leading web design professionals today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.