Factors of good animation

Animation in interfaces should:

• Be fast, so that no-one feels like they’ve waited for it to finish
• Be smooth. The animation should not have noticeable jerking or stuttering on most devices
• Be interruptible, so that they don’t interfere with interaction
• Help a person understand something about the interface, e.g. a wiggle that lets them know something has changed
• Follow an internal logic (e.g. the animation moves in a certain way for a reason)
• Be relevant to the idea/concept behind the interface. If an animation is there because “it looks cool”, it is probably not relevant
• Respect operating system motion preferences, like “reduce motion”
• Not trigger photosensitive reactions, like epilepsy

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