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Animation: Is it good for your website?

Many business owners like using animation on their websites. The reason given is usually something along the lines of "Having animation on my site will make my site look more professional. Visitors will then think more highly of my business because we clearly have a high-tech website. And I think it looks really cool!" But is this really the case? When should you use animation and when should you avoid it?

What is animation?

Basically, once a page has loaded, anything that's still moving on the screen is animation. There are a variety of uses for animation ranging from simple animations that might be intended to "liven-up" a page through to more complex and lengthy animations that could be used to provide a product demonstration.

Should I use animation?

Whether or not you should use animation depends on the purpose of the animation. Or rather, it depends on whether the animation has a purpose.

Trying to impress your website's visitors or make your site look more "professional" just simply aren't valid reasons for using animation. For starters, animation is so commonplace on the web nowadays that it really isn't particularly impressive. The important thing to remember here is that you are not your website's target audience. Just because you, your employees, or your friends think the animation is cute, funny, or technologically advanced is no guarantee that your site's visitors will think so.

Your website's visitors are generally looking for clear, specific, and interesting information about your products or services. They aren't usually looking to be entertained. If you were delivering a presentation to a potential client, would you outline the details of your proposal and then direct the client's attention to the really neat animations on your website, or would strive to hammer home the value of doing business with your company and the unique benefits you can provide?

There are some important questions you should ask yourself before incorporating animation into the site. Here are a few of them:

• Does the animation add anything of value?
• Does it make the page/site/button easier to use?
• Does it make the purpose or meaning of the page/site/button clearer?
• Is the animation distracting? Does it draw the user's attention away from the page's actual content or the site's core message?

Let's look at an ultra-simple example of animation: a "rollover effect" on a navigation button. A rollover effect is simply a behavior that can be applied to a button so that when the user's mouse pointer passes over the button, the button changes in some way (usually color). Rollover effects are used on a wide variety of sites, but are they really a good idea? Let's go through the above questions.

Does the animation add anything of value? Yes, the effect provides useful feedback to the user and makes it clear that the part of the page the user just rolled over with the mouse is a clickable button.

Does the animation make the button easier to use? Yes, for the same reason as above.

Does it make the purpose of the button clearer? Not necessarily, but it does provide a useful visual cue that the element is a button.

Is it distracting? Not at all, since the user's attention is directed at the button anyway.

Clearly, in this case, using animation is helpful and can make the site easier to use.

Let's look at another example. A few months back I was talking to a friend from college called Abby. Abby is in charge of sales and marketing at a small company in Chicago. Their website featured lots of information about the products they sold and an animation on each page to liven the otherwise dreary content up a bit. The animations included a mouse dancing, a dog barking and wagging its tail, and a man waving an American flag. Abby didn't like the animations, but the owner of company loved them, and was "frequently told by clients that they really livened up the website."

I suggested Abby use the above questions and see if her boss still liked them. Did the mouse add anything of value? Not a chance. Did the flag-waving man make the site easier to use? Not a bit. Did the dog make the site's core marketing message clearer? I don't think so. Were they all distracting users from the page's primary content? You bet they were! Within a week, the animations had been pulled from the site and Abby had been asked to work on livening up the actual content on the site.

Overall

Animation can be a really useful tool. It can make a website more usable, more engaging, and more effective. But like any tool, animation is only helpful when it's needed. You should only use animation when it serves a clear purpose, and even then, you should use it carefully, because too much animation is much worse than not having any at all.

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