3 ms·

Motion is the the bass player in the band. You shouldn't notice them but when they're gone something definitely doesn't feel right.

mrob 11y ago
All interfaces already have motion without needing animations. If I click "minimize" and something disappears, then it obviously minimized. I don't need a timewasting animation telling me that.
- bcook 11y ago
  I used to think this but now I honestly think that "pleasing" animations (fades, transitions) improve my mood. Also, sometimes the buttons are not very descriptive (like 3 different colored dots) so the animation can be helpful by showing you what happened with an animation.
- makecheck 11y ago
  Actually, I think you do. Maybe the app crashed without saving your data. Maybe you hit a button or pressed a key by accident without realizing what it did, and now all your precious work seems to be gone and you don’t know where it went or why. Not all feedback is automatically bad. The trick is to get rid of animations that force the user to wait for them (e.g. most “opening” animations are in this category; I do not want to wait for something to finish sliding open before I can use it, I want items to appear instantly).
  - mrob 11y ago
    In that case the correct solution is fixing the app so it doesn't crash, and fixing the input device so it doesn't generate spurious inputs. The Unix style of silence on success is the best feedback, because it means I can mentally queue multiple actions without being interrupted.
- dandelany 11y ago
  If it's an unfamiliar system, it may not be clear where it has been minimized. I can spare 0.2 seconds in exchange for a quick reminder of how to "unminimize" it.
  - mrob 11y ago
    It's only an unfamiliar system once. I'll accept animations as a tutorial mode if they can be turned off when they're no longer useful. I won't accept an additional 200ms of unnecessary latency every time. That's more that enough to feel like an interruption, so the harm as far more than the cumulative time wasted.
- bobwaycott 11y ago
  I always turn off as many OS-level and app animations I can. I hate the unnecessary delay and overall feeling of slowness that having to sit through animations creates. Even in games I often wish for a speed-mode that would reduce or remove all but the most necessary animations (especially in older games).
- zanny 11y ago
  I come from a KDE background, but I find a noticable difference in user engagement when window resizing / minimizing / creation is not animated. The default animation moves minimized windows to its spot on the taskbar / dock, which gives a lot of useful context to users who would otherwise get lost.

mrob 11y ago

All interfaces already have motion without needing animations. If I click "minimize" and something disappears, then it obviously minimized. I don't need a timewasting animation telling me that.

bcook 11y ago
I used to think this but now I honestly think that "pleasing" animations (fades, transitions) improve my mood. Also, sometimes the buttons are not very descriptive (like 3 different colored dots) so the animation can be helpful by showing you what happened with an animation.
makecheck 11y ago
Actually, I think you do. Maybe the app crashed without saving your data. Maybe you hit a button or pressed a key by accident without realizing what it did, and now all your precious work seems to be gone and you don’t know where it went or why. Not all feedback is automatically bad. The trick is to get rid of animations that force the user to wait for them (e.g. most “opening” animations are in this category; I do not want to wait for something to finish sliding open before I can use it, I want items to appear instantly).
- mrob 11y ago
  In that case the correct solution is fixing the app so it doesn't crash, and fixing the input device so it doesn't generate spurious inputs. The Unix style of silence on success is the best feedback, because it means I can mentally queue multiple actions without being interrupted.
dandelany 11y ago
If it's an unfamiliar system, it may not be clear where it has been minimized. I can spare 0.2 seconds in exchange for a quick reminder of how to "unminimize" it.
- mrob 11y ago
  It's only an unfamiliar system once. I'll accept animations as a tutorial mode if they can be turned off when they're no longer useful. I won't accept an additional 200ms of unnecessary latency every time. That's more that enough to feel like an interruption, so the harm as far more than the cumulative time wasted.
bobwaycott 11y ago
I always turn off as many OS-level and app animations I can. I hate the unnecessary delay and overall feeling of slowness that having to sit through animations creates. Even in games I often wish for a speed-mode that would reduce or remove all but the most necessary animations (especially in older games).
zanny 11y ago
I come from a KDE background, but I find a noticable difference in user engagement when window resizing / minimizing / creation is not animated. The default animation moves minimized windows to its spot on the taskbar / dock, which gives a lot of useful context to users who would otherwise get lost.