When animations entered the web design, they were nothing more than an interesting graphic effect and had no other effect on the website design than entertaining the user.
But as the world of the web expanded and Internet access became faster, bandwidth optimized, and browsers became better and more powerful, animations became more important elements in site design. Elements that once had only one corner of a website have now become one of the main elements in the design of most sites.
Today, animation and animated effects are one of the main parts in designing a website and making them attractive, and ignoring it makes your site look old and unused.
This article will discuss the 7 practical applications of animation in the design of modern websites, as well as the methods of using them, as well as its impact on SEO and website optimization.
Draw attention
So far, science has proven that “movement” attracts attention. This biological mechanism of ours dates back to centuries of hunting. In fact, for this mechanism, looking around in a dangerous forest is no different than looking at a monitor screen.
If most parts of a website are static and motionless, the human eye will inadvertently move to the moving part. This feature can be used to impress users or create a visual hierarchy. Animations are useful in designing the site to warn the audience in the following cases:
- New news, new message, update and …
- New features or new pages
- Create a specific path to take the user to the next steps
Animations are a great tool for guidance. Through animations, user questions such as “what should I do” and “where should I go” can be answered before being asked at all.
Education
Let us give an example. In a mobile application, the user closes a menu, and at this point an animation, for example, appears as a flash from the left. This icon indicates to the user that he can open the menu again by swiping his finger from the left side of the screen in the direction of the flash.
Proper use of animation effects in site design can teach the viewer something better and more effectively than any fixed word or image.
Hover animations are most used in site design and training. Hover animation means that when you hover your mouse pointer over a part of the website, that part or object within the site changes color or starts moving. When this happens, the user realizes that this is one of the interactive parts of the site that is supposed to explain something to him.
One of the main roles of hovercraft in website design is to let the user know that this part of the site contains information or an interactive part.