Animation is the easiest thing to overdo and the hardest thing to do well. Add too little and a product feels stiff; add too much and it feels like a screensaver. The question we ask of every transition is the same: what does this help the person understand?
Good motion answers a question
- Where did that come from? — an element slides in from the direction of its origin.
- What just changed? — a subtle highlight draws the eye to the thing that updated.
- Is it working? — a loading state reassures without nagging.
If a piece of motion doesn't answer one of these, it's probably decoration, and decoration is the first thing to cut.
Respect the people who opt out
Some people get motion sickness from parallax and big transitions. Honoring prefers-reduced-motion isn't a nice-to-have — it's the baseline. Design the still version first; the motion is an enhancement on top of something that already works.
One orchestrated moment beats ten scattered ones
A single, well-timed sequence on page load will be remembered. Ten little effects firing on every hover will just feel noisy. Pick the moment that matters and choreograph it properly.
Motion is a language. Like any language, it's most powerful when you have something to say and the discipline to stop talking when you're done.