Integrated animations: cutting-edge technique that will lead your site to success
In our digital world, simply having a website is not enough. When a new person opens your site, you have as little as a few seconds to impress them and make them stay. Therefore, striving for an optimized, functional and interactive website should be one of the top priorities of every business regardless of their size.
In recent years, integrated animation proves to be one of the key factors that determine the success of a website. Here is why it is so important and what are the elements you should pay attention to.
Main features of each website
There are several ways to make your website a success but you need to keep in mind the basics – content and design are the two major things that can make or break your site. We won’t go into too much details here because we have covered the major ways to improve your website in another article. Let us just remind you that when you design your website, you should make sure it has the following features:
- Loads fast – no one wants to wait too long for a site to open. Make sure your site loads quickly on all types of mobile devices. You can easily check your site’s loading speed by using Google’s own page speed checking tool;
- Mobile-friendly design – every one with a smart device should be able to access and browse through your site at any time. Luckily, Google have a tool for that, too;
- SEO ready – make sure that your site is optimized for search engines and has all the necessary tags and elements, such as XML sitemaps. Do not forget, however, that it should be optimized for humans too. Include attractive and original content with the help of custom writing, in-house writers or guest bloggers;
- Enabled Content Management System (CMS) – as we mentioned that content really matters, including a back-end CMS will allow your clients to post and edit content, which will make your site more attractive;
- Integrated social media platforms – social media plays a vital role in our modern society so make sure that you have all the necessary platforms integrated on your site. This will increase your traffic and visibility;
- Efficient security – last but not least, you should make no compromises with the protection of your clients’ and users’ data. Include all the necessary security and privacy protocols that will guarantee the overall strong security of your site.
Why integrated animation is the key to success
Animation always grabs the attention. Having in mind that you have to impress your site visitors in a couple of seconds, including motion is one of the clever tricks to use. Integrated animation can make your site interesting and attract more traffic. It has several applications – to draw the attention to a specific service/product/piece of information, to teach or simply to delight and entertain the site visitors.
It is of paramount importance, though, that the integrated animation is done in the right way. Otherwise, it can serve exactly in the opposite way and instead of attracting visitors to your site it may repel them or distract the users from the main purpose of the site. Therefore, there are two main concepts the animation should follow: purpose and feel.
- Purpose of the integrated animation
The purpose of your animation corresponds to the question why and basically gives an idea of how the users interact with your site. Animation can be used mainly in three ways – to indicate a change in the state, to show emphasis or to reveal some additional information.
- State change – in this case, the animation indicates that there was a change in the state of an object as a result of user interaction. This can be as a result of a click or hover. The usage of animation makes the transition between the states softer.
- Emphasis – the use of animation aims to direct the attention of the user to a given action or specific information. Emphasis animation can be used to urge the user to move to the next step in a process, for example. It is also very useful if you want to call-to-action.
- Reveal – this is a very common use of integrated animation. It hides or reveals extra information and can be usedto drop down or side menus and popovers. In most of the cases, it keeps the information neat and tidy.
In general, you should decide on the categories that will go with the purpose of your animation. You can opt for standalone animations, animated tutorials or group different animations. The idea is that the integrated animation should reveal the identity of your brand.
- Feel of the integrated animation
In addition to the purpose of the animation, it also has a specific feel that it brings to your site. Different types of animation can make users associate your brand with certain feelings. Soft bouncy motion is usually associated with something lively and energetic, a motion that squashes and stretches is perceived as friendly and playful, while opacity, color and blur changes are seen as soft and calm. If you want your brand to be associated with something decisive and certain, you need to integrate animation with steady ease-ins and ease-outs.
Motion tools and techniques
When talking about animation, it is also important to choose the right tools and techniques to integrate it on your side. Ask your designers and developers to make a thorough research and choose only the very best for you.
There are several motion techniques that you can use but two of them are the most popular – these are Parallax and Dolly and Zoom.
- Parallax is a scroll-based animation where the objects on the front move quicker and are perceived as closer to the viewer, while the objects on the background seem more distanced and move slower. This technique can be used to draw the attention to objects that have more priority.
- Dolly and Zoom is a concept taken from the films. It is a smooth transition of the object that changes from a long shot to a close-up or vice versa.
If you are looking for good tools that can help you with your animation, you can start with some free or trial options. Bounce.js is a good free library that will help you create and embed your animation. Animatron offers a trial version, which is easy to use. Behance, CodePen,and Dribble are also useful tools and offer resources that can help you with your integrated animation.
The Internet is a global marketplace and your site defines your position. Make sure that it is attractive and well-designed so that it catches the attention of users and potential clients. Opt for integrated animation as a great tool that can lead you to success but does not forget the other elements as content and overall design.