How imprecise UI animations erode trust in product

This article argues that developers should ensure their user interfaces look flawless at every millisecond of a transition, explaining that broken animations and mid-load layout shifts subtly erode a user’s trust in an application’s quality:

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This is a good article and pretty interesting insight into someone who is passionate/knowledgeable about UI/UX design.

While I, as a user, don’t personally care about every single frame of an animation being perfect, I do have a major pet peeve about UI/UX design that feels very prevalent today (mainly in websites)…

I absolutely loathe when entire elements shift positions during the loading of a website. Most times I am already clicking where I see the button and then it moves up an entire section and now I’ve clicked on something else that then takes me extra loading time to recover from.

I don’t know if this is the fault of async work or “responsive design” or some awful combination of both, but I do really wish that it would stop! That doesn’t necessarily “erode trust” as the author would say, but it does cause frustration that makes me look for a different website.

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:100: Whack-a-mole isn’t cool online.

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The whole mass delusion that everything should be moving is a hysterical fashion fad. In a few decennia everybody will look at it with a facepalmed “OMG this is so awkward 2020’s, what were they thinking ?”. More or less the same as we look back at some websites from the 90’s laden with a myriad of moving GIFs :rofl:

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I understand the point though—although I’m fine using apps with “suboptimal” animations, having them be “perfect” adds a layer of polish to the product; makes it feel like the developer truly cares about the product.

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I agree with the author for native apps - if the brand/product is supposed to be top quality, like Apple’s macOS should be - then it should look polished rather then widgets jumping around. Last I used macOS (~2018-2019), it was the buggiest experience ever! Good job it was just a work computer.

I’d bet the earlier Mac OS X versions from the early 2000s were more polished in their interactions. I bet a guy named Steve would had shouted at someone if it wasn’t. :smirking_face:

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This is a complaint for me too as purely a user with zero development experience or background. I dislike how companies feel the need to change things for the sake of change. If it works, and you can continue to update it appropriately over time, then it shouldn’t be changed unless it is to address community suggestions or something. I like things to just work, and be consistent.

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I would say “it depends upon what the user interface” is “and what it” does before insisting that it has to be a precise interface. Sure, when we’re talking about stuff with UI animations in it, this article is spot on.

In my case, dirt and Brian are close to the same age. When I think about animations, I think about Woody and Buzz Light Year in Toy Story or maybe Scooby Doo and Shaggy!

So the inclusion of UI animations are two critical words in this discussion; that said, with the inclusion this is an important article; pay close attention to the details.

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