Microinteractions in Design

Billions of people start their day with microinteractions simply by turning off the alarm on their smartphones. And they continue doing it throughout the day: when answering their phone, checking an email, or playing their favorite tracks. Each of these casual moments are invisible. However, they always matter. Especially, when it comes to a feel of a site.  

• Microinteractions make websites more emotional
• Microinteractions draw attention of users
• Microinteractions encourage commenting, liking, and sharing on your content
• The user experience becomes much more rewarding
• Microinteractions communicate information
• Microinteractions provide tips to users as well as a relevant feedback about completed actions
• Microinteractions make it easier for visitors to interact with your site
• Microinteractions improve a website’s navigation

Well-created microinteractions are a sign that you care about your customers. That is why they are so important. Less is more when it comes to microinteractions. They should be focused only on wow-effects, users, and their convenience. If done right, microinteractions can influence users’ actions and give positive feelings about your company, often without visitors even realizing why. By paying proper attention to microinteractions, you leave your clients satisfied.  

Now, let us see some examples of microinteractions:

• Page Animation

Add some aesthetic elements to a site, such as lovely flowers. Especially, if your customers are mostly women (for example, if a company offers cosmetic services). By making flowers respond to a mouse moving you will get a pleasing user experience. At the same time, these effects will not distract your customers from a primary goal – ordering the services and getting the information.

• Mouse Interactions

The primary goal of this microinteraction is to add some fun while supporting the overall perception of a service.

• Gamification

By using this type of microinteractions, you will turn an ordinary site into an exciting experience. All truly great games are built on stories that come up with tasks that must be completed in order to get a reward. Gamification turns your website into a game, which involves users into an exciting journey.

• Value Change Microinteractions

Humans and objects never move with a constant speed. Usually, they need time to slow down to a complete stop or before they reach full speed. Similarly, for a human eye, any linear movement looks unnatural. When value-based objects appear with no value change, the users will see them as static objects. The role of interface elements, based on letters and numbers should not be underestimated. They may change their value.

• Navigational Microinteractions

Currently, a so-called hamburger menu is one of the biggest trends in web design. It is a navigation menu hidden behind a button, additional information appears when hovering on it. It has become popular since it is easily recognizable for users, it makes a negative space on a page pleasing to the eye, and groups all secondary information together. A navigation menu allows you to get rid of abundant interface elements and content so that users will easily understand what is for which purpose.

• Attracting Attention Microinteractions

Animated microinteractions are your new best friends if you want users to do something specific on your site. Eye-catching animation works the best no matter whether you want to push users to share a post or commit a purchase. Also, it would be a great solution to animate call-to-action buttons.

• Hover effects

This type of microinteractions adds some dynamics to website pages. Hover effect changes some elements (image, shape, size, color) when a user puts a mouse arrow over them. It is clean, beautiful, and is usually achieved with CSS coding.

• Loading Times Microinteractions

Nobody likes to wait until a website loads. However, there is a great way to turn those several moments into a beneficial and entertaining experience. A small promo is one of the most efficient uses of animation for the web that distracts users from loading times.

To sum up, the final results of any design process should be not just beautiful, but also beneficial and convenient. Our portfolio is full of many creative and fresh pieces of design for different needs and purposes. Check them up!