What is the role of micro-interactions in UI/UX design? Let’s see how small and engaging animations can enhance your website’s user engagement and satisfaction.
What are micro-interactions?
Micro-interactions are small details in an interface that may not seem very important to you but are very essential for your website’s engagement and user satisfaction. They can be tiny animations, sound affects or haptic feedback.
They are everywhere, whether we use a mobile phone, computer or even a regulator. In the context of user experience, micro-interactions are subtle animations that are build in a website to enhance its interactivity.
Principles of microinteractions:
The four basic rules are:
- Trigger
- Rules
- Feedback
- Loops and modes
1. Trigger:
It is the first rule of a micro-interaction. Trigger is what initiates a micro-interaction. It refers to the moment when an event or system action takes place. Triggers can be human generated (tapping a button, hovering over an element) or machine generated(receiving a notification).
2. Rules:
Rules defines the behavior of a micro-interaction. They are the set of logics that govern what happens when a micro-interaction is triggered. Designers establish these rules while developing the website.
3. Feedback:
This principle of micro-interactions ensures that users receive a clear feedback of the micro-interaction they have performed. Feedback can be anything which gives people a response as a result of their action. For instance, a button changing color when clicked.
4. Loops and modes:
This principle ensures that the micro-interactions don’t end abruptly. It creates a continuous flow that supports user engagement and interactivity. For instance, a loading animation appears while the content is being loaded. You can read detailed documentations on it here.
Why are micro-interactions important?
It may seem small, but they have a huge impact on overall user experience. Some of the many benefits of micro-interactions are listed below:
- Branding
- User engagement
- Error prevention
- Feedback
- Usability
1. Branding:
Micro-interactions can be used to build the brand’s identity and provides an opportunity to infuse the brand’s personality into the user interface. Through animations, audio and visual effects, they can create a unique and memorable experience for users that aligns with the brand’s identity.
2. User engagement:
Well designed micro-interactions can be beneficial in enhancing the overall user engagement and satisfaction. Small animations can make the overall experience more engaging and enjoyable. They create a moment of delight that can leave a lasting impression and can increase further engagement.
3. Error prevention in micro-interactions:
Micro-interactions plays a significant role in error prevention and control by providing quick and precise feedback to users. They help prevent errors by proving the services like undo and redo messages, confirmation dialogs etc. Additionaly, when error occurs, providing clear and friendly error messages through micro-interactions can soften the imapct and guide the user towards corrective measures.
4. Feedback:
Micro-interactions provides the customers with immediate feedback. letting them know that their queries have been registered. This helps the customers understand the interface and also helps with the overall interactivity of the website.
5. Usability:
Micro-interactions can enhance the usability of a product by making it more intuitive and clear to the customer. They help customers understand the system’s response to their queries and questions, making the overall experience less confusing and frustrating.
Top 5 tools for creating micro-interaction:
- Adobe after effects
- InVision Studio
- Flinto
- Farmer
- Principle
1. Adobe after effects:
It is a powerful motion graphics and animation software widely used to create intricate micro-interactions. It is extensively used for creating visual effects, composting and enhancing video footage. The software also supports a wide range of third party plug-ins and extensions for catering special project needs.
2. InVision studio:
In Vision studio is an all in one design and prototyping platform that support micro-interactions. This tool supports responsive design, making it easier for designers to create interfaces that adapt well to different screen sizes and revolutions.
3. Flinto:
Flinto is a user-friendly tool that offers a drag and drop interface and a wide range of animation templates to create interactive designs. Moreover, it provides the feature to preview the prototypes on actual devices, providing a more accurate representation of how the design will behave on mobile platforms.
4. Farmer:
Farmer is a versatile prototyping tool that supports both micro-interactions and advanced animations. It provides a user-friendly and interactive interface that enables designers to create micro-interactions with precision and control.
5. Principle:
It is a dedicated micro-interactions tool whose user-friendly and intuitive interface allows for easy creation of micro-interactions without the need for writing complex codes. It allows users to quickly create and prototype an animation.
Wrapping up:
In conclusion, micro-interactions stand as the heroes in the world of user interface design and user experience. The importance of it lies not only in their aesthetics but also in their functionality.
From providing feedback and validation to guiding user actions, micro-interactions can work wonders in enhancing the overall usability of digital products. You can also learn about more basics of UI/UX on this article here.
