5 ms·

Against magic: animations slow down interfaces

15 points by ivanech 8y ago

crimsonalucard 8y ago
Dont be ignorant. That's like saying movies dont need special fx. Story is all you need.
- ravenstine 8y ago
  It's balance. I don't see many hit movies these days because they recycle very primitive ideas while slamming the audience with as dazzling visual effects as seemingly possible. It's all designed to fool the mind into believing it's seeing something new by appealing to its sense of novelty and primitive desire. But that doesn't mean it's being given anything of new substance. Much is the same with a lot of today's application design. I don't think the author of the article would say to never use animations under any circumstance. They just need to be used sparingly to properly communicate ideas rather than merely dazzle. Material Design is probably the worst offendor as it's convinced designers to not be original and to instead rely on sets of splash/wave effects and slide animations that don't communicate but instead dazzle. I know some of this has to do with creating Android- compatible interfaces, but a lot of it ia undoubtedly caused by dazzlement and the desire to be like Google. A related aspect of modern design is the fact that so much of it has become color palette porn, using pretty, flat colors to create graphics that would look great in a physical magazine or poster, but do almost nothing but dazzle in graphical interfaces, rather than draw the attention of users to important parts of the application. Material Design helped popularize this trend, but it was in the works before it became a thing. Such design is massively overused and should instead be used sparingly, just as modern movies really don't need the sheer amount of CGI crap they spew if they had good ideas to communicate.
- jonhendry18 8y ago
  FX in a movie don't block you from getting something done. You're in a passive mode when you're watching a movie. Imagine being in your car and stepping on the brakes, then having to wait for a dashboard animation to complete before the braking actually started. There's a place for UI animations but it should be possible to turn them off once the novelty wears off.
  - DEADBEEFC0FFEE 8y ago
    Windows 10 has these settings, the tradeoff offerered is Visual Quality vs System Performance. While I like these setting and only have a few turned on, Clear Type, Transparent Drag and such, I take umbrage at the idea that my preferences are some how of lower visual quality.
- freeone3000 8y ago
  The idea of a time-wasting animation wasting time shouldn't be novel. If you're creating an entertainment product, of course looking good should be a key factor! If you're creating a tool, the appearance of your product should not interfere with using the product to do work.
achow 8y ago
Most of the animation principles are there to help take actions instead of conveying the actions that are taken (Staging, anticipation, exaggeration etc.)
thomastjeffery 8y ago
> Animations slow down interfaces To be pedantic: Animations can introduce latency to interfaces. This is the main point that people need to understand. So long as you aren't making the user wait (even just a few milliseconds) for an animation to happen, you should be OK. Granted, it's easy to go overboard. I certainly prefer a cleaner UI.
anotheryou 8y ago
Animation certainly can help with transitions. Try keeping track scrolling an a stock emacs jumping half a screen per wheel tic. Most of these animations totally make sense: https://material.io/design/motion/choreography.html#transformation https://material.io/design/motion/choreography.html#transfor... Look at the 2nd "don't" at "Complex transformations" to see how great animations are. I do however get mad with apps that use page flip transitions. Such a simple and often used feature in a reading app is super annoying and should be possible to turn off. As in many cases: the power user needs no hinting and can even live with undocumented keyboard shortcuts, but for a smooth ride you from the start you need hints.
- anotheryou 8y ago
  The suggested speeds of the material guidelines is quite alright too though https://material.io/design/motion/speed.html#controlling-speed https://material.io/design/motion/speed.html#controlling-spe... Speeds are appropriate to the actions and even a but shorter than the numbers say, if you consider the last 1/4 to be just the slow stop of things (I hope they are already actionable there). I like the double speed transitions android offers for devs :) Even with ultra high speed you could use animations. One can learn from games (e.g. 1 frame smears): https://youtu.be/Mw0h9WmBlsw?t=945 https://youtu.be/Mw0h9WmBlsw?t=945

15 points by ivanech 8y ago

crimsonalucard 8y ago

Dont be ignorant. That's like saying movies dont need special fx. Story is all you need.

ravenstine 8y ago
It's balance. I don't see many hit movies these days because they recycle very primitive ideas while slamming the audience with as dazzling visual effects as seemingly possible. It's all designed to fool the mind into believing it's seeing something new by appealing to its sense of novelty and primitive desire. But that doesn't mean it's being given anything of new substance. Much is the same with a lot of today's application design. I don't think the author of the article would say to never use animations under any circumstance. They just need to be used sparingly to properly communicate ideas rather than merely dazzle. Material Design is probably the worst offendor as it's convinced designers to not be original and to instead rely on sets of splash/wave effects and slide animations that don't communicate but instead dazzle. I know some of this has to do with creating Android- compatible interfaces, but a lot of it ia undoubtedly caused by dazzlement and the desire to be like Google. A related aspect of modern design is the fact that so much of it has become color palette porn, using pretty, flat colors to create graphics that would look great in a physical magazine or poster, but do almost nothing but dazzle in graphical interfaces, rather than draw the attention of users to important parts of the application. Material Design helped popularize this trend, but it was in the works before it became a thing. Such design is massively overused and should instead be used sparingly, just as modern movies really don't need the sheer amount of CGI crap they spew if they had good ideas to communicate.
jonhendry18 8y ago
FX in a movie don't block you from getting something done. You're in a passive mode when you're watching a movie. Imagine being in your car and stepping on the brakes, then having to wait for a dashboard animation to complete before the braking actually started. There's a place for UI animations but it should be possible to turn them off once the novelty wears off.
- DEADBEEFC0FFEE 8y ago
  Windows 10 has these settings, the tradeoff offerered is Visual Quality vs System Performance. While I like these setting and only have a few turned on, Clear Type, Transparent Drag and such, I take umbrage at the idea that my preferences are some how of lower visual quality.
freeone3000 8y ago
The idea of a time-wasting animation wasting time shouldn't be novel. If you're creating an entertainment product, of course looking good should be a key factor! If you're creating a tool, the appearance of your product should not interfere with using the product to do work.

achow 8y ago

Most of the animation principles are there to help take actions instead of conveying the actions that are taken (Staging, anticipation, exaggeration etc.)

thomastjeffery 8y ago

> Animations slow down interfaces To be pedantic: Animations can introduce latency to interfaces. This is the main point that people need to understand. So long as you aren't making the user wait (even just a few milliseconds) for an animation to happen, you should be OK. Granted, it's easy to go overboard. I certainly prefer a cleaner UI.

anotheryou 8y ago

Animation certainly can help with transitions. Try keeping track scrolling an a stock emacs jumping half a screen per wheel tic. Most of these animations totally make sense: https://material.io/design/motion/choreography.html#transformation https://material.io/design/motion/choreography.html#transfor... Look at the 2nd "don't" at "Complex transformations" to see how great animations are. I do however get mad with apps that use page flip transitions. Such a simple and often used feature in a reading app is super annoying and should be possible to turn off. As in many cases: the power user needs no hinting and can even live with undocumented keyboard shortcuts, but for a smooth ride you from the start you need hints.

anotheryou 8y ago
The suggested speeds of the material guidelines is quite alright too though https://material.io/design/motion/speed.html#controlling-speed https://material.io/design/motion/speed.html#controlling-spe... Speeds are appropriate to the actions and even a but shorter than the numbers say, if you consider the last 1/4 to be just the slow stop of things (I hope they are already actionable there). I like the double speed transitions android offers for devs :) Even with ultra high speed you could use animations. One can learn from games (e.g. 1 frame smears): https://youtu.be/Mw0h9WmBlsw?t=945 https://youtu.be/Mw0h9WmBlsw?t=945