The thing I appreciate most about Nick Babich’s article on UX Planet entitled “3 Key Uses for Animation in Mobile UI Design” is the liberal use of example animations as a way to communicate core concepts.
When talking about system status, he’s clear to delineate between loaders, refreshes, and notifications – all important aspects for users to understand that the system is still working. There’s the notion of perceived time that Babich seems to capture well with his reference to creative progress indicators.
With regard to Navigations & Transitions, he again brings examples of complementary design, transport effects, relationships. One thing to be mindful of with transitions is Fitt’s Law, which describes (among other things) elements being within the same range as one another. His explanations do a nice job here of that.
And finally, give the user control by providing feedback. While are mobile touchscreens are an abstracted view of the physical world, we should expect to have immediate and responsive feedback that empowers the user and gives them confidence.
Take a look at Nick’s other work and make sure you clap back for all of the great articles he’s put into this original post. For a deeper dive you can also reference some of the tools and tutorials links as well.