How to create animation for a website and app and make a presentation for a client

Contents:

• Key characteristics of animation
• How to show animation and transfer it to work

Animation in web design serves two key functions: it enlivens the site and makes it more memorable, and also deepens user interaction. Animation draws attention to important elements, helps users understand what actions they should take, and increases the time spent on the site. Furthermore, websites with high-quality animation look more professional and engaging, which can positively impact brand perception. Incorporating animation into web design not only improves the user experience but also promotes deeper audience engagement. Creating animation is only half the process for a designer. It's important not only to develop the animation but also to present it effectively to the client. Then, the project must be handed over to the developer so they can properly integrate the animation into the overall design. In this article, we will discuss the key characteristics of animation and how to use them to effectively communicate with both the client and the technical specialist. These aspects will help establish collaboration and ensure that the final product meets the expectations of all parties. We present information on an important topic. In our material, you will find up-to-date data and useful tips. We strive to provide readers with only verified facts and practical recommendations. Stay tuned to learn more and stay up-to-date with the latest news.

• What affects animation duration?
• What does the "Smoothness" parameter mean?
• How to describe properties?
• Why is a Figma presentation useful?
• How to communicate animation to developers.

Currently, there are no universal standards for formatting animation in technical specifications. Figma is a convenient tool for creating simple prototypes, but when presenting complex animation solutions, designers often have to rely on text descriptions and images or animate mockups in After Effects. This process can be time-consuming and expensive, and it also makes it difficult for developers to understand. Since it is difficult to immediately determine the duration and speed of animation from video footage, developers are forced to calculate the necessary parameters themselves, which can lead to errors. Effective collaboration between designers and developers requires clearer and more understandable documentation to streamline the animation development process and reduce the likelihood of errors. Animation in an interface plays a key role in improving the user experience. It helps draw attention to important elements, simplifies navigation, and makes interaction with an application or website more intuitive. In this article, you will learn about the benefits of animation, its impact on information perception, and how to use animation correctly to create an effective interface. Read on to understand how animation can enhance the appeal and functionality of your project. Key Characteristics of Animation Animation is characterized by three main parameters: duration, easing, and image properties. Duration determines how long the animation will last. Easing describes how naturally and harmoniously the transition between states occurs. Image properties include aspects such as color, size, and position, which can change during the animation. These parameters are fundamental to creating high-quality and engaging animations, making them essential for designers and developers.

To simplify the presentation of animations, it is important to specify the duration of each animated element. It is recommended to use milliseconds, as many animation libraries preferred by developers require these values. Correctly specifying the duration of an animation allows for more precise control over effects and improves user interaction with the interface.

The duration of an animation largely depends on the area it occupies. The larger the area, the longer it may take for the animation to display smoothly. When planning an animation, it is important to consider its size to ensure optimal user experience.

Screen resolution and animation area directly affect the duration of the video. The larger the resolution and area, the longer the animation will be, as it requires more frames to achieve high image quality. Optimizing the resolution and area of ​​an animation is important to ensure smoothness and clarity of video content.

The dependence of animation duration on screen size can be explained logically. For example, an animated arrow will take longer to cross a standard monitor than a smartphone screen. The same applies to drop-down menus, pop-up banners, and other animated elements. The larger the screen size, the longer it takes for animation to be perceived. This is important to consider when designing interfaces to ensure optimal user interaction with content.

According to research by the Nielsen Norman Group and Model Human Processor, the human brain perceives 100 milliseconds as an instant, and 1 second is the critical limit for maintaining user attention. These findings are directly relevant to dynamic elements on a website. To effectively engage visitors, it is important to create elements that quickly capture attention and do not distract from the main content. Optimizing loading times and smooth animations directly impact user experience and, consequently, website conversion.

The optimal duration of an on-screen action is 200–500 milliseconds. This time interval ensures comfortable user perception and interaction with the content. Given the speed of the human brain's processing, this range effectively maintains attention and minimizes the risk of losing interest. Proper on-screen reaction time plays a key role in the user experience and can significantly improve interaction with the interface.

For interface element animation on mobile devices, Google Material Design recommends setting animation duration in the range of 200–300 ms. For tablets, it is recommended to increase this duration by 30%, which is 400–450 ms. On smartwatch screens, animations should last between 150 and 200 ms. Following these guidelines helps create a smoother and more comfortable user experience, which is especially important in mobile apps and web design.

Google Material Design and Apple Human Interface Guidelines are key guidelines from Leading mobile development companies. These documents contain best practices and solutions for creating effective and intuitive user interfaces. In our article, we will take a detailed look at these guidelines, their features, and recommendations that will help developers create high-quality applications. Animation duration directly affects its speed. A fast animation may be unnoticeable to the user, while one that is too slow can create the impression that the site is slow. To achieve an optimal user experience, it is important to find a balance between the speed and duration of animation so that it is visually appealing and does not distract from the main content. Properly configured animation improves the perception of a site and helps retain user attention. The speed of animations directly depends on their functional purpose and context of use. Animations that perform important tasks, such as attracting user attention or demonstrating changes, require a faster and clearer implementation, while animations that create atmosphere or visual interest can be smoother and slower. Properly configured animation speed contributes to a better user experience and a more efficient interface. Optimized animations not only make interaction more natural, but also help users better understand the changes taking place on the page.

• Minor animations (appearing tooltips, changing the color of a pressed button) are usually faster;
• Complex animations (prompting action, engaging the user in interaction) need to attract more attention, so they are slower.

It should be noted that significant changes in color and transparency are more easily perceived, which allows such changes to be implemented at a higher speed.

In complex animation, elements typically don't move with a linear velocity. Instead, they have a specific motion pattern that defines the character and dynamics of the animation. This characteristic is called easing, and it plays a key role in creating natural and engaging animation effects. Proper use of easing allows for a more realistic perception of motion, which improves user interaction with the interface.

In real life, objects never move with a constant speed or amplitude. For example, if we drop a ball on the floor, it will initially bounce to a significant height, but over time, the height of its bounces will decrease. Movement typically begins with acceleration and ends with deceleration. This process illustrates the principles of physics related to energy and resistance, which affect the dynamics of objects.

Animation has an overall duration and speed, but it also has a characteristic that determines how quickly an element changes over a given time. This characteristic is known as easing. Easing plays a key role in the perception of animation and allows for more natural and engaging transitions. The correct choice of easing can significantly improve the user experience, adding dynamism and expressiveness to interface elements.

The smoothness of animations plays a key role in creating realistic movement and ensures effective user interaction. Using scenarios such as ease-in, which emphasizes acceleration, and ease-out, which emphasizes deceleration, can significantly improve the perception of animation effects. These techniques not only make animation more natural but also help retain the user's attention, which in turn contributes to increased engagement and a better user experience.

• Ease-in is used in tooltips, banners, and other system animations. Smooth acceleration allows the user to better perceive the animation. A sudden and unexpected banner appearance can cause a negative reaction - people don't like surprises, and ease-in helps smooth out this effect.

• Ease-out is more often used in situations where user interaction with the interface is paused. The effect of the last completed action gradually fades away, and a natural effect of a stop is created. For example, when scrolling through the news in the app, the feed initially moves at a certain speed, and then gradually slows down - just like any movement in real life.

• Constant speed is used, for example, in simple auxiliary animations built on changing color and transparency. They shouldn't be too distracting to the user: their main purpose is to seamlessly complement the design, so there's no point in drawing attention to them with smoothness.

When creating a smooth effect, the type of effect and its duration must be specified in the specifications. This will allow you to fine-tune visual transitions and ensure a more enjoyable user experience. Properly formatting these parameters will help avoid misunderstandings and improve the quality of the final product.

The parameters specified in the specifications determine which elements will be changed. This can concern the transparency, color, shape, scale, and placement of objects, both individually and collectively. For example, changing the transparency can create an overlapping effect, while changing the color will help emphasize specific details. Such transformations allow you to achieve the desired visual effect and improve the overall perception of the design.

• Location.

• Colors.

• Effect.

When changing multiple properties, it is necessary to describe each of them in detail. This will help ensure clarity and understanding of all changes, as well as their impact on the end result. Proper documentation of properties is essential to ensure accuracy and efficiency in future use.

By using three key terms—duration, easing, and properties—you can clearly and understandably characterize any animation. These elements play a vital role in creating engaging and effective visual content, allowing you to convey the desired emotions and emphasis. Correct understanding and application of these concepts significantly improves the quality of the animation and allows you to achieve the desired effect.

How to present an animation and hand it over to production

There are different approaches to presenting an animation to a client. Simple animations are conveniently demonstrated in Figma, while After Effects is better for complex projects. You can also create storyboards to help developers understand the concept and implement the project more effectively. Choosing the right tool for presenting animation significantly impacts the client's perception and understanding of the idea, as well as the quality of the final product.

This online tool allows you to create clickable prototypes in which you can demonstrate simple animations. To do this, you need to draw a screen with the start and end points of the animation, establish a relationship between them, and describe the animation type, such as fading in, fading out, or moving. You can also adjust the easing level and specify the animation duration. This approach allows you to effectively visualize user interaction with the interface and improves the perception of the design.

Animation in Figma: A Complete Guide

Figma offers powerful animation tools that allow designers to add dynamic elements to their designs. Animation helps make interfaces more interactive and engaging. In this guide, we'll cover the main animation features in Figma and offer tips for using them effectively.

To get started with animation in Figma, open your project and select the element you want to animate. In the properties panel, find the Animation section. Here you can choose the animation type, such as transitions between states or animations for interactions with the element.

One of the key aspects of animation is adjusting timing and speed curves. This allows you to control how quickly or slowly the animation occurs, which impacts user perception. Use preset curves or adjust them manually to achieve the desired effect.

It's important to keep in mind that animation should enhance the user experience, not distract from the main content. Consider how animation can help the user understand what's happening on the screen and direct their attention to important interface elements.

Remember to test your animations on various devices to ensure they work correctly and perform optimally. Figma offers animation previews, allowing you to make changes before final implementation.

Use animation in Figma to create engaging and user-friendly interfaces that will impress users and improve interaction with your product.

• How to create transitions for a client presentation
• Creating interactive components with smart animation

To successfully present a project to a client, simply send them a link to a finished clickable prototype in Figma. This will allow the client to familiarize themselves with the various pages and animations. If the animation affects only certain elements, it is recommended to provide links to these points, accompanying them with explanations for better understanding. This approach not only simplifies the demonstration process but also helps the client better understand the functionality and design of the project.

Complex animations are difficult to implement in Figma, and this is where After Effects comes in handy. Creating a high-quality video with spectacular transitions and animations will take time, but the end result will justify the effort. This is especially important if your goal is to impress the client. Using After Effects allows you to more accurately convey the concept and demonstrate all the nuances of animation, which is an important aspect during the project presentation process.

If the animation takes a long time or there are too many of them, it is advisable to create a video with key fragments. This will allow the client to clearly understand the overall concept and main ideas of the project. Video will be an effective demonstration tool, simplifying the perception of information and increasing the client's interest.

For the implementation of complex scenarios, the use of storyboards is recommended. They allow you to clearly imagine how the plot will develop and help visualize key moments. Using storyboards simplifies the planning process and promotes a clearer understanding of the concept, which is especially important during the script development stage. This tool helps writers and directors collaborate on a project, ensuring clarity and consistency in visual storytelling.

The easiest way to communicate animation to developers is with static storyboards. While they can be created manually, Figma is much more convenient. These materials not only facilitate the process of communicating information but also serve as an effective tool for layout control. By comparing the completed animation with the specifications, you can ensure the project is executed accurately and matches the intended design. Using Figma in this process significantly improves the quality of communication between designers and developers.

Storyboards don't require detailed drawings, but they should contain a clear description. It's important to indicate the state of an element before and after the animation, as well as indicate changes to all parameters, such as duration, smoothness, and properties. This will allow for a better understanding of the animation's dynamics and its visual perception. A high-quality storyboard contributes to more effective planning of animation projects and improves communication between participants in the process.

When handing over animation to the client or developers, we recommend placing all animations on a separate sheet in the text technical specifications. It is best to present them in a table or storyboard format, where all the characteristics of each animation are specified in detail. This will ensure clarity and simplify the development process, allowing all project participants to quickly navigate the animation elements. This approach not only improves communication, but also increases the quality of the final product.

Also explore the possibilities of animation:

• Zero block in Tilda: landing page animation
• Hand-drawn animation effect in After Effects
• Multiple exposure in After Effects. Step-by-step instructions
• An expert answers: what can’t be animated on a website
• Text film credits as an art and genre in motion design