Day 21: Animation Basics in Figma

Prototyping is like failure, you should do it early and often when solving complex problems.

Similar to Day 9, I created an animation for a landing page. Today, I learned about animation basics in Figma to have a better and foundational understanding of Interaction design and how to add it to my arsenal.

Prototype animations

  1. Instant

  2. Dissolve

  3. Smart animate

  4. Move in and move out

  5. Push

  6. Slide In and Slide Out

Tips for animations

  1. Don't wait till you have high-fidelity mockups to prototype

  2. Prototype with rough wireframes in the early stages of a design

  3. Using Figmotion, a Figma plug-in can help

For a UX animation, transitions are to be between 250ms to 400ms. There is a custom bezier configuration [0.8,0,0.2,1] to achieve an optimal S curve.

Questions to answer before animating

  1. What are you trying to communicate?

  2. Where is your object going?

  3. How fast should it move relative to its size?

Key learnings

I was excited to see my animations come to life, the use cases were playful, but I learned how to make static elements come alive. I possess a solid inclination to Interaction design against other aspects of innovation in this challenge. I look forward to improving my foundational understanding of the interaction and infusing it into my arsenal.

References