Micro Interactions – The Next Big Thing in Web Design - web design dubai

Micro Interactions – The Next Big Thing in Web Design

Best-and-Worst-Logo
13 Best and Worst Logo Redesigns that will Make You Rethink Yours
February 2, 2017
How Mobile Apps Can Boost Conversions and Sales [Infographics]
February 13, 2017
Show all

Micro Interactions – The Next Big Thing in Web Design

In today’s’ business world, everyone is striving to enhance user experience by focusing on human-centered approach. And as technology continues to advance, web designers are now able to delve deeper into the minor details of a user interface. In UX, what matters most is how you deal with users and how they feel about using your product, service or mobile app.

Even minor details deserve a close attention. Micro interactions provide users with the required feedback and a clear understanding of the continuing processes, making an interface friendly and accessible enough no matter how complicated the logic and coding behind it.

These minor details add up substantial enhancements to your web design. Micro interactions provide pleasant visual feedback, making the interface feel weightless. Being a designer, identifying the invisibility of these tinier details is just as important as creating them. You have to design something that gives human touch and feel, while accomplishing a task easily. You also need to focus on a design that can work in a number of environments and does not need any instructions or guide.

A good micro-interaction design can help you perform a lot of actions, such as:

· Better communicate the status and give immediate feedback
· Increase the sense of direct handling
· Help users visualize the results of their actions
· Preventing human errors

If truth be told, micro-interactions include moments or you can say actions that you come across every day. They can impact things like:

· Turning features on and off
· Allow you to comment in a digital medium
· Allow you to view a notification or popup message
· Scrolling up and down the screen to refresh content
· Easy interaction with data elements
· Help you get your tasks done
· Connecting with multiple devices like printer, music player
· Sharing, liking an image or video on a website

Basically, these types of interaction lead users towards a more human-centered design, allowing them to accomplish tasks easily. The rising trend of making websites and devices that give a more human touch and feel is a key to adoption and usability.

Keep Users Informed

The first and foremost usability experimental approach by Jakob Nielsen says that: keeping your users informed about the process is key to success. Users expect to get responses quickly, but there are some scenarios when your website needs some time to complete the action.

The user interface should keep the users updated about what is happening by showing a graphical element in the background, playing a sound or giving any other hint. Moreover, the same criterion applies to file transferring: don’t ever let your users get bored, show them progress. Even an annoying notification can be sent in a more pleasant way. Make your users happy anyway.

Notify Users about the Change

Sometimes, in order to save some extra space, an app will simply replace the button with another one when required. And sometimes we need to show notifications to ensure users sees them. Animation will surely attract the attention of users and not let them overlook what you think is more important.

Keep the Navigation Simpler

In today’s digital age where everyone has smartphones and smartwatches with mini screens, it can be a bit challenging to fit everything on one small screen. One amazing way to handle it cleverly is to keep the navigation clear so the user can easily navigate the available options.

Help Users to Interact with Uncommon Layouts

 

It is important for micro-interactions to help users understand how to interact with non-standard layouts without any confusion. Images flipping forward, scrolling graphs and moving characters are all great options for non-standard layouts.

Call to Action

Besides helping a user to effectively interact with a website design or mobile app, micro-interactions have the real potential to encourage users to actually interact such as keep on browsing, share and like content. It is because they are attractive enough and don’t allow users to leave.

Visualize Input


Data input is one of the major elements of any mobile app or website design. The quality results users get are totally relied on the data input process. As a principle, it seems quite boring, but micro-interaction turn this boring process into extra special.

Educate Users

Micro interaction animations can help educate users after the launch of an app by highlighting the basic features and controls needed for the further usage without any glitch.

Why Micro-interactions are so Successful?

This rising web design trend of micro-interaction is becoming so popular, because they appeal to the user’s natural desire for acknowledgement.

Providing more control: The user is capable enough to know their action is accepted via immediate feedback, giving them more confidence in further usability.

Guidance: No matter subtle or blatant, micro interactions can instruct users in how to perform the specific action.

Visual Effects: Small but satisfying effects or rewards can enhance the user experience.

Meeting expectations: In today’s’ web design industry, micro-interactions have become the principle, their ignorance makes your website seem tasteless.

Takeaway

So, if you want to improve your website’s user experience, polish your user interface, enhance it with micro-interactions and animations. And it will add life into your web design project. Attention to each and every detail, even the tinier one, is key to your website’s success and making smartphone device interaction easy for users.

Saher Naseem
Saher Naseem
Saher Naseem (@SaherNaseemD) is a creative writer, blogger and a social media addict. Blog writing is her passion and she shares her knowledge and insights on the latest advancements, on-going trends and much more. Currently, she is working for Dubai Monsters - a leading web design company in Dubai that offers digital marketing solutions.