You’ve spent a ton developing a sleek website or a functional app. But there’s a problem: your engagement rate drops when people get to the homepage. Users aren’t clicking, exploring, or interacting as much as you expected. The interface looks great, but something feels…static.
That’s where UI animation comes in. Subtle transitions between your web pages, a slide-in action button that bounces like gelatine, a website button that changes color on hover, a loading indicator that keeps users engaged, or a micro-interaction that provides instant feedback—all these elements work together to make your interface feel alive.
In this article, we’ll explore what UI animations are all about (and what they’re not) and how you can use them to fix your shaky engagement rates.
What are UI animations?
Molly Ancel, Managing Partner at Peerpoint, defines UI animations as “motion-driven design elements that help user experience feel more natural and smoother by adding visual effects to interface components. They can range from intricate onboarding sequences that guide users through a mobile application to simple animations like a bouncing ball that keeps users engaged while a webpage loads.”
These animations transform your website or app into a dynamic, interactive, and engaging platform—attracting attention, encouraging users to stay and explore, and guiding them to take action.
Types of UI animations to use
There is a laundry list of UI animations out there, but you only need a few crucial ones to add life to your interface. Let’s quickly go through them.
- Micro-Interactions: These are small, functional animations that help users interact and receive feedback. This includes button hover effects, toggle switches, and typing indicators in chat apps.
- Loading and progress animations: Keeps users engaged as a page or a function loads. Progress animations include spinners, loaders, skeleton screens, progress bars, and percentage counters.
- Navigation transitions: These are responsible for smoothly guiding users from one page or section to the other. Examples include slide-in menus, page transitions (fade, swipe, zoom effects), and scroll-based animations.
- Feedback and confirmation animations: Similar to micro-interactions, they reinforce user actions. Examples are success/failure animations after form submissions, a "Shake" effect for incorrect password entry, and check marks or error icons appearing dynamically
- Attention-grabbing animations: These are the most common animations and usually serve to highlight important elements. They include pulsing call-to-action (CTA) buttons, flashing notifications or badges, and animated tooltips appearing on hover.
- Onboarding and tutorials: Onboarding animations guide users through new apps or websites with engaging motion movements. This includes animated walkthroughs, hand gestures for mobile apps, and stepwise UI units.
- Parallax and scroll animations: These two are at the top of the list in modern designs and serve to create depth and engagement. Background elements moving slower than foreground elements, elements appearing as users scroll, and 3D tilt effects based on cursor movement are all usable examples.
- Transformation and morphing animations: These usually involve a transition from one shape to another. For instance, icons changing shape when clicked, expanding or collapsing panels, and animated resizing of elements.
How do UI animations help Engagement?
In a study conducted by Arvo, the average engagement rate across industries stood at 65% in 2023. UI animation can help you score more than that in 2025 and gain an edge over your competitors.
Here’s how:
Captures user attention
“With so much information competing for users' focus on your website or app, it's easy for key elements to go unnoticed. Important actions, offers, or messages can get lost in the noise, reducing engagement and conversions”, Peter Čuček, Owner at Tuuli, shares.
UI animations help cut through the clutter by drawing attention to essential elements. A pulsing call-to-action button, a subtle glow around a special offer, or a tooltip appearing on hover can naturally pull your users' eyes to where they need to be.
Provides clear visual feedback for user actions
“We’ve all likely been there—repeatedly moving our mouses a button and watching how it changes color. That subtle change reassures us that the button is interactive and ready to be clicked”, Stanislav Khilobochenko, VP of Customer Services at Clario, says.
Similarly, when a form shakes after an incorrect password entry or a checkmark appears after a successful submission, these animations provide instant feedback, reducing uncertainty and improving usability.
Without these visual cues, your users might feel lost or unsure if their actions have been registered.
Guides users through complex workflows smoothly
Simply popping out a menu out of nowhere provides zero context and sense of direction to your users, especially on multifunctional applications. UI motion cues such as transitional arrows, flowery slide-ins, or smooth fading effects help to solve that.
These cues guide users naturally, showing them where elements are coming from and where they are going.
Enhances storytelling and reinforces brand identity
Leon Huang, CEO at RapidDirect, believes that “Animated visuals can add life to your website’s narratives. For instance, a travel website might use subtle motion to illustrate a journey—planes taking off, landmarks appearing, or tickets sliding into a digital wallet. This speaks more details than texts and keeps your website visitors or app users glued to their screen.”
Similarly, UI animations can reflect brand identity and reinforce consistency. Bouncy buttons, exaggerated pops, and animated mascots all depict what a kids’ learning app should look like. On the other hand, a fluid, futuristic motion element and parallax scroll animation speak more value to a tech startup. This approach becomes even more powerful when combined with interactive data experiences—like digital product passports, which leverage transparency and detailed product narratives to build trust and boost user engagement.
Using the right type of animations ultimately resonates with your users and reduces the chances of them bouncing.
Makes loading times feel shorter with perceived performance improvements
More than 50% of visitors will bounce if a website loads for more than three seconds. Sometimes, you can’t avoid that. So, a good option is to use something to tweak your visitors’ perception of time.
You can do that with multistep skeleton loaders, layered progress indicators, or gamified visual distractions.
The load time of both animations above is six seconds. However, the second one is layered and impacts time perception more.
6 tips to maximize UI animations on your website and app
UI animations can mar your engagement rate if not used right. Let’s go through some tips to avoid that and maximize their benefits.
Keep animations purposeful and as a forethought
Rob Gold, VP of marketing Communications at Intermedia, says, “UI animations shouldn’t just delight; they should be functional. One way to achieve this is to ensure they are not an afterthought in your design process.”
That means they should be part of the wireframe and have a role right from the brainstorming stage—whether to tell a story, reflect your brand identity, tweak time perception, or do other tasks. This ensures seamless integration with other components of your application or website.
Prioritize performance and optimize for speed
Animations are awesome, but they can slow down your website if they're not optimized. To prevent this, ensure you compress each component before uploading it or reduce the number of animations used. You can also use platforms like LottieFiles compressor to optimize your JSON animations without sacrificing quality.
Use animations to guide user attention, not distract
“There’s no hard and fast rule on how much or how many UI animations should be on each page of your website and app. However, overloading your interface with excessive motion can overwhelm users rather than enhance their experience. So, it’s crucial to strike a balance, using UI animations to enhance the design rather than dominate it”, Jacob Barnes, Founder of FlowSavvy, advises.
You should also avoid using too many intrusive elements, such as constant flashing, rapid movements, or unnecessary bounces. They can make your users’ experiences feel chaotic and frustrating.
Implement micro-interactions for better engagement
An example of a micro-interactive UI animation is the typing indicators you see in Whatsapp’s chat bar when you’re communicating with a friend. These elements are linked to user actions and provide feedback, ultimately enhancing engagement. On your website, you can implement hover effects on buttons, color changes, and responsive transitions on click.
Ensure animations align with your brand’s personality
Raihan Masroor, Founder & CEO at Your Doctors Online, says, “Just like any other component of your app and website design, your choice of animations convey or reflect your brand identity. A sleek, minimal brand might use smooth, subtle transitions, while a playful, energetic brand could incorporate bouncy, dynamic effects.”
It could be anything other than these examples, but you have to ensure each UI animation feels intentional and consistent with your brand’s tone.
Test animations across devices for smooth performance
“You need to cross-test your UI animations for performance on different screens. This includes loading speed on both mobile and desktop, first-appearance display, aspect ratio and frame rate consistency, and responsiveness to user interactions. An animation that looks smooth on a high-end device might lag or stutter on lower-powered hardware”, Adrian Iorga, Founder & President at Stairhopper Movers, contributes.
You should also run A/B testing to see which animations draw more engagement.
Wrapping Up
User Interface animations add life to your website and app compared to static designs, which is crucial for improving engagement. For maximum effectiveness, ensure your UI animations are forethought and purposeful, beyond delivering aesthetic benefits. Prioritize performance and optimize for speed as well to keep your visitors from bouncing.
Implement micro-management to boost engagement and ensure each UI animation aligns with your brand message and identity. Finally, test your animations across different devices to maintain consistency on all screens.
Creating good UI animations from scratch is a boatload of work and resources. Alternatively, you can explore LottieFiles for pre-designed and editable animations that align with your engagement needs.
