Best Website Animation Techniques for Your Website Design

Singapore website design industry has undergone tremendous changes over the last couple of years. Website appearances have come a long way and businesses are keen on using special features to capture the attention of the target audience.

The majority of the modern websites in Singapore have one or more animation features that not only make it more appealing and easy on the eyes of the user but also more comfortable to use. Singapore web designers are aware of the impact animations have on-site users and conversion rates.

Today, we will look at web page animation techniques that will make your site more appealing to the target audience.

Think About Navigation

Navigation is one of the most common web page animation techniques used on corporate websites. Thanks to advancements in technology, professional web designers in Singapore are capable of creating hidden navigation that allows users to use sites more conveniently and smoothly. By just clicking on a particular icon, one is directed to the next page.

One of the benefits of this web page animation technique is that it saves screen space and keeps the visitors on a specific area of the site.

Other benefits of navigation animations include:

• Site looks organized and professional
• Organize the website into categories
• Make it easy for the audience to find content form in each category
• Speed up the amount of time potential customers spend looking for information
• Makes the site pages more accessible

Hover Animation for Homepage

The homepage is the first page that new potential customer sees when they land on the site. It is essential to make sure that it is upbeat to avoid losing them to your competitors. Hover animations have proven to be effective in improving user experience, navigation, and capturing the attention of the users instantly.

Javascript is used to create CSS animations that provide feedback for all actions taken by website users. The only disadvantage is that they are not compatible with mobile devices. This is not a major issue though as elevation animation can be used to create the same effect for potential customers who use mobile devices to access your website.

Loading/Progression Animations

Page load time is of paramount importance. Most users will ditch your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. However, there are instances when users will feel that the page is loading slowly even though it is still fast. This problem can be resolved by adding progression animations. They distract the users during the time that the site information has been loaded.

These animations will give the target audience the perception that load time is shorter while it is just the same. Even though they can affect the creativity of your website design, such animation will significantly reduce the bounce rate by encouraging visitors to wait for the entire site to load without feeling as if they are wasting time.

Here are two tips on how to design loading animations.

• Simplicity: If the animations are too sophisticated or complex, they will be too apparent to the visitors and may divert their attention to the page load time factor again.
• Engaging: The loading animations should be as engaging as possible to capture the attention of the users.

Concisely, this web page animation technique is meant to show the user’s progress and lure them into sticking on the site until it fully loads. A good example is a progress bar that indicates that the information is being fetched in the background and will be displayed in a few seconds.

Attracting Users Attention

One of the surest ways of attracting and retaining the attention of the target audience is by adding motion to your Singapore business website. Animations that contain motions can be used to lead a potential customer to a specific page and motivate them to take the desired action.

This kind of animation does not have to complicated, it can be a simple shake or nod icon and can be placed in different parts of the website such as:

• Forms
• Menus
• CTA
• Feedback

Skeleton Screens

Skeleton screens have become prominent in not only Singapore but also in other parts of the world. They are useful in spurring engagement. What are the skeleton screens? Simply put, these are empty sectioned pages into which information is added gradually. However, you can still decide to add the information as soon as the web design is complete.

To get the best results, it is recommended to include the animations when the information meant for that page is still unavailable. The primary objective of this kind of animation is to keep the users engaged. It is also important to note that the lack of animations will make the page useless, annoying, and could paint a negative of your brand to potential customers.

Visual Feedback

As a Singapore business entrepreneur who is determined to make inroads into the digital world of marketing, it is good to offer a response or feedback to customers when they perform a specific action on your site. Visual effects are ideal for this purpose.

In some instances, the website visitors might not know what to expect from the site in terms of interactive items. Such a challenge can lure them into closing the tab and looking for another website.

One of the guaranteed ways to avoid this is by creating interactions that are easy to use and understand. The users should be given information related to each interaction they have with the site elements to be sure that they are on the right track.

Visual feedback can be any element that shows a response to a target customer action on the site such as:

• For link states
• To form elements
• For button states
• Helpful and informative error messages

Creative Effects 

Your website should create an exceptional content presentation to attract users and enhance a unique digital experience. Creative effects enable you to incorporate individual elements that can make your site stand out from the competitors.

Interactive features encourage users to stay on your website longer and frequently visit your website.

Parallax Scrolling

Parallax scrolling is an essential part of the user’s experience. Visual appealing scrolling enables the users to continue exploring your site that can lead to increased engagement. Segment your content and add web animations to improve interactions that keep your audience engaged, elevate the site’s aesthetic, and enhance content. 

Back To the Top

After scrolling to the end of the website’s pages, the “back-to-top” feature will help you get to the top. It is a simple button that can help minimize users dropping off from sites’ rich content by simplifying the user’s journey.  

Dynamic Backgrounds

Dynamic backgrounds provide animation effects to the website, create an emotional connection and make the user’s journey memorable. Ensure that these animations align with the existing content instead of being the center of users’ attention. They should make the overall UI and UX design simpler and compelling.

Galleries And Slideshows 

Slideshows on websites allow users to view images at once without affecting the user experience. They are a better way to deliver various pictures on a website, providing users with an option to view them or keep looking for other information on the website.

Ensure the images move with the most appropriate speed, not too fast or too slow, to create a pleasant user experience

Dynamic Menus

Dynamic menus improve the overall user experience. Initially, users could scroll back to the top to access the website menu. The menu is always accessible with animation as you scroll through the website, making it easy to access the navigation bar and search for a preferred page.

Storytelling

Animated storytelling has provided an avenue for brands to present their products or service creatively. They also help in building an emotional bond between the users and the brand. The storytelling format is a suitable way to present a comprehensive and engaging story. 

Welcoming Animation

The first impression lasts its therefore essential to make sure that your website creates a positive first impression. You can ensure this by incorporating impressive animations to attract and engage the users from the beginning. With this type of animation, the brand can creatively welcome the target audience and motivate them to take desired actions such as purchasing products or services.  

Whole Page Motion

The whole page motion adds slight movements to the background of the website. This feature adds a component of magic and thrilling adventure to the website. Ensure to make it invisible such as it doesn’t distract users from their preliminary plan. It should only add more interactive components to the website. 

Transition Without Hard Cuts 

Transitions on websites should be seamless. Animation techniques allow users to click on links that lead to different pages while remaining on the same page. Hence, improving the overall users’ experience. 

Reasons you should consider animation for your website

1. Animations make your website stand out from your competitors.
2. It drives traffic to your website by attracting your target audience’s attention.
3. It acts as a user guide on your behalf.
4. Boosts users’ interactions.
5. Ensures the visitors of your site stay engaged.
6. It creates an emotional connection with viewers.
7. It boosts the overall user experience.

Ensure every website animation you use for your website is well presented and improves the overall user experience. Remember, less is more. It is more appropriate to use simple animations; complex animation can create a negative response from views affecting the overall brand image.

Here are a few examples of creative web animations:

• Arrive hydrated

This website uses motion animations to capture the audience’s attention allowing them to select their destinations anywhere by moving the curse around the globe. 

The menu button has various segments for the entire webpage, making it easier for users to navigate and access information of their choice. The website has incorporated a parallax effect upon hovering on each section. It also uses a percent loading bar when loading information, a clever way to keep the visitor’s attention.

• Jannata resort

The website has incorporated slideshows into motion pictures to attract the viewer’s attention. There are two buttons on the right side of the website; one for the menu and another for booking options. The designer incorporated scrolling animations for this website. 

The website is more creative in the way it presents images, making it more creative and attractive. The implemented storytelling technique ensures the users are engaged. Every part of the website has a sense of motion; images are positioned next to information on each segment, adding an element of creativity that keeps visitors engaged. 

• Echo

Echo website provides information through a scrolling storyline, ensuring the viewer transitions smoothly from one UI to the next. As the viewer scrolls down, screenshots are provided together with information for easy access. The website offers a smooth navigation experience and transition on all the websites sections. 

• Madewell 

Madewell is an online store that incorporates relax animation in its background. It provides viewers with an opportunity to view different images through the slideshows and galleries. Its navigation offers an easy transition from one section to the next. The menu button produces a huge menu once clicked that covers the whole page. 

The animation has a black background with colorful structures that ensure viewers remain engaged and not get bored from repetitive animation.

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Web Animation Technologies

Once your brand designer has identified and selected animation techniques to incorporate in your website, they share them with the front-end developers for implementation.

Here are the best technologies and frameworks developers use for web animation. 

• CSS

CSS animation assists front-end developers in making transitions using keyframes. The animation method is high-performing, lightweight, and doesn’t require external libraries. 

Animations are added to a webpage by using DOM (Document Object Model) and setting customized properties. CSS animations enhance website responsiveness, ensuring compatibility with different screen sizes, which is a number one factor to consider in today’s website design.

• JavaScript (JS)

JavaScript is a powerful programming language that is essential in the implementation of website animations. It is more flexible compared to CSS. 

JS implements all animations via external libraries affecting animation performance and the website’s loading time. It is mainly used when you need to pause, slow down, or stop animation.

• Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

The SVG is used to create easily scalable animations that look exceptional on a website. It doesn’t have limitations on pixels even after zooming. Developers use CSS to build SVG elements. It also has its animation functionality for creating more complex animations.

• Canvas

Canvas is an excellent platform for developing more complicated animations and rendering large-scale visuals. Developers use these pixel-based solutions to build complex images with various shades, colors, and motion without affecting the animation performance. 

• WebGL

Web Graphics Library is a JS API that generates sophisticated animations effects and renders high-performing interactive 2D and 3D graphics with any compatible web browser without using plug-ins. WebGL also renders animation at 60frames/second. 

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Website Building Platforms

Wix 

Wix is a website builder that gives developers the freedom to create, design, manage and develop websites based on their preferences without coding. 

Developers can:

• Customize sites by selecting already existing templates or by answering few questions to get a free website designed.
• Add advanced features to their blog or website.
• Optimize their websites for mobile devices.
• Optimize their websites for search engines. 

Readymag

Readymag is a popular digital platform used for building websites. It provides a complex yet straightforward animation features that give motion to the elements of your website, such as rotating and scaling. 

Webflow

Another alternative platform is Webflow. You can use it to develop multi-step animations without coding. You can also utilize it to design micro-interactions components that trigger motion upon hovering or click them. 

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Best Animation Libraries for UI Designers in Singapore

Looking for the best free animation libraries in Singapore? Look no further, the availability of free animation libraries in Singapore fuels front-end web design transformation that we have witnessed in recent years. During the late ‘90s, most designers in Singapore were creating static magazine layouts. Things have since changed since modern-day designers create digital machines that encompass thousands of coordinated and moving parts.

A great UI designer also needs to be good at animation. This means having a solid understanding of most web animation techniques. Generally, each library is perceived from the standpoint of code-savvy UI designer rather than a code guru developer.

Some of the libraries are purely CSS-related while others are JavaScript. Nevertheless, none of the libraries require more than basic CSS/HTML knowledge to be useful. You simply need to link the library before adding a CSS.

These are the best animation libraries that UI designers in Singapore should know about.

• Animate.css

Animate .css is considered one of the best free animation libraries in Singapore due to its ease of use. Applying this animation library to your UI project is as simple as integrating the CSS and adding the necessary CSS classes to HTML elements. If you want to trigger animations on a specific event, you can use jQuery.

Animate.css has a minified file and a library size of 47 KB only. Therefore, it can get included in mobile files. Often, this animation library is packaged as an element in many large projects. It has an impressive ranking on GitHub. As remarkable as Animate.css is, it’s still undergoing active development.

• Bounce.js

There is an abundance of JavaScript animation libraries that you can use to undertake UI projects in Singapore. Even so, none of this beats Bounce.js in terms of functionality and uniqueness. This library is designed to deliver an array of unique and funny animations to your site.

Released in 2014, Bounce.js helps you create alluring CSS powered animations within the shortest time possible. This animation library has an incredibly small size of 17 KB only. The small size of this library is attributed to the fact that it comes with less than ten animation presets.

The animations that you will get from Bounce.js are not only smooth but also flawless. If you want to create “pop and bubble” animation types that require a low file size overhead, this is the best animation library for you.

• AnimeJS

Despite being relatively new, AnimeJS is among the best free animation libraries in Singapore. This animation library is renowned for its compelling design and versatility. With it, you can power HTML game animations without feeling overwhelmed or out of place.

AnimeJS is also remarkably fast, easy to learn and use. When using the animation library to undertake your projects, you will rarely find faults with it. Being a lightweight animation library, Anime JS works with individual CSS transforms, any JavaScript Objects, CSS properties, and DOM or SVG attributes.

Judging from the animation library’s GIF capture, it’s easy to understand why animators highly regard it. AnimeJS features stunning documentation, which demonstrates JavaScript code, working examples, and HTML in an attractive app environment. Simply put, if you are comfortable with JavaScript animation solutions, you shouldn’t ignore AnimeJS.

• Magic Animations

For years, Magic Animations has been one of the best free animation libraries in Singapore. It comes with dozens of animations, most of which are unique to it. You can implement the animation library by the CSS file. Also, you can leverage animations from jQuery. The animation library similarly comes with a cool demo application.

Magic Animations has a library size of 36.5 KB. Its CSS3 signature animations have special effects including foolish effects, bomb effects, and magical effects. When undertaking a UI design project and you are looking for something out of the ordinary, you shouldn’t look beyond this animation library. It won’t disappoint you.

• DynCSS

If you want to work with an animation library that comes with parallax effects, DynCSS should be your go-to option. The animation library’s demo shows just how impressive it is. DynCSS was released in 2014 and is lauded for its ability to make websites come to life.

Despite its simple interface, DynCSS has proved to be quite popular among UI designers in Singapore. One of the coolest features that this animation library offers is the variation of elements. This is explained in the animation library’s demo video.

• CSShake

When undertaking UI design the first time, it’s advisable to use an animation library that is designed to for shaking elements on your web pages. CSShake is one such library. It comes with lots of variations that can help you shake your web components.

CSShake has a huge file size of 78.8 KB. This doesn’t come as a surprise considering the functionality that the animation library has. The animations that you get from this library are clever. You wouldn’t need to integrate an additional animation library to experience non-shaking effects.

• Hover.css

Sometimes, UI designers need animation libraries that are designed for use with UI elements such as buttons. Hover.css features nice 2D transitions as well as dozens of well-crafted animations. Many consider Hover.css as one of the best free animation libraries in Singapore.

Applying this animation library to your own elements is easy. Hover.css has a library size of 104.2 KB. The library is the best option for animating distinct page elements including logos, buttons, featured images, and SVG components.

One of the most outstanding features about Hover.css is the all-inclusive list of routines that come with it. This explains the large file size of the animation library. The distinctive curls and speech bubbles effects are also impressive.

How to Choose The Best Free Animation Libraries In Singapore?

There are tons of free animation libraries that you can choose. The rule of the thumb is that you pick an animation library that combines sophistication and versatility with stability. Keep in mind the fact that using animation libraries in your web application will significantly improve interactivity.

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7 Core Reasons to Use Animations on Your Website

Having looked at the five common types of web page animations, the next thing that we need to discuss are the reasons why you should invest in this kind of visuals. But before we do that, it’s important to point out that you should hire a professional web designer in Singapore who has the required skills and expertise to create and incorporate the animations. Otherwise, you may end up compromising the design of the website.

1. Boost Audience Retention Rates

Animations have been proven to increase the audience retention rate significantly. The more time a potential customer spends on your website looking at the various products and offers, the more chances you will have to encourage them to convert. 

Also, Google uses this metric to determine the relevance of the content posted on a particular website to the customers. A high bounce rate signifies that the content does not match the searcher’s intent, and the bots may decide to de-rank your site as a result.

Monitor how the audience interacts with the animations by using tools such as Google Analytics. You can also use the tool to carry out A/B tests to know which animations suit your brand best.

2. More Qualified Leads

User-experience is one of the primary factors that determine the success of any online business. Customers gravitate towards websites that offer them a good user experience, and Google also uses this as a ranking signal.

Quality animation that explains how a product works or service will spark a conversation with the audience. It will capture their attention and motivate them to research more about your brand and what it offers.

Concisely, custom content that addresses the needs of the target customers will increase the number of quality leads streaming to your website. If you get it right, they will convert or contact the support team for clarification, thereby increasing the chances of convincing them to place an order.

3. Increase Customer Return Rate

It’s every entrepreneur’s goal to get customers who shop at the store multiple times. However, this is easier said than done due to the many factors that come into play. One of the tested and proven ways of increasing return rate is by adding unique animations in the landing pages, home pages, or any other website section that clients frequent.

Use the animation to converse with the customers directly and include a call to action such as “Join Now” or “Buy Now” to boost engagement levels. You will be amazed at how the target customers will respond to your content when you present it uniquely and intriguingly. Note that they may have visited other sites before landing on yours, so use the animations to differentiate your brand from the rest.

If the animations are created by an expert and strategically placed, rest assured that you will reel in customers that you may not have won using the conventional forms of content such as videos. If you have not been using them, now is the right time to spring into action to get a higher cutting edge in the competitive Singapore online business landscape.

4. Builds Credibility

Is there a difference between credibility and reputation? Well, the words are different, but the meaning is the same. Your credibility in the market is hinged on the reputation that you have built over the years. A clean reputation is a sign that your products are top quality and match the customers’ needs.

Concisely, reputation is one of your most valuable assets when doing business through the internet. Your site will help establish and prove your credibility to potential customers if you publish quality content. An animated video that describes the most critical factors to your customers will help you achieve this goal.

The web page animations will also help to increase your brand awareness. Go ahead and share a link to a page that contains a new animation on social media to get potential customers talking about your brand. If it’s good and elicits positive emotional reactions, the followers will share it on their profiles, thereby showcasing your brand to more people at no extra cost.

5. Crank Up Engagement Levels

When creating any form of content for your website, your primary goal should be to spark the customers’ interests and engage with them at a deeper level. The downside of using blocks of text, even if it’s well-organised, very few people will take the time to read it. As a result, you will get a high ranking and organic traffic but a low conversion rate.

You can avoid such issues by investing and using animations. They will increase the customers’ interest in your product and motivate them to convert. More importantly, the animation should be memorable and exciting to watch so that even if they don’t convert when they visit the website for the first time, they will come back at a later date and check out.

6. Boost Return on Investment (ROI)

When running a business online or offline, everything that you invest in should give you a return. It would be best if you strived to spend your resources (time and money) on timeless website assets. Such assets will continue to impact your business positively for many months.

Animations are timeless and can be used in multiple digital marketing campaigns, not just on the website. They will help increase your return on investment because you present them on a platform affable to the target customers.

As mentioned earlier, make sure that you include a call to action to encourage the customers to take the desired action. Without a CTA, some customers won’t know which step they should take after watching the animation. For example, if the goal is to encourage them to join your mail list, have a clear call to action such as “Join Now.”

7. Increase Customer Loyalty

Apart from getting a good stream of customers, you also need to have customers who will stick by you through thick and thin. Loyal customers will purchase products from your store and go the extra mile to market you through word of mouth or social media posts.

Reward them for their loyalty by using animations to offer or describe the discounts or coupons to them. You can also decide to give them incentives such as a 15% discount on their next order for every five customers they send your way.

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4 Common Web Page Animation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

The process of designing a website and creating animations should be done by a professional who is qualified and has the expertise required. As mentioned earlier in this article, a poor animation can ruin the website design and compromise usability.

Here are the three common web page animation mistakes and how you can avoid them.

1. Failing to Remove Transforms

Animating a product illustration with some transforms embedded in the inline SVG syntax will result in flickers. If you are conversant with CSS transforms, the syntax below may look straightforward and vague.

<polygon transform=”translate(65.074074, 14.500000) rotate(-180.000000) translate(-65.074074, -14.500000)” points=”65.0740741 0 91.1481481 29 39 29″></polygon>

Both Illustrator and Sketch export such shapes if they are not flattened. This is OK when creating static icons, but the polygon will rely on its first origin point when animating it instead of the right or desired position if you don’t change.

You can avoid such a mess by duplicating an artboard that has the final illustration and making sure that all the shapes are flattened before exporting. Using Figma to optimize the images can also help prevent this design problem from occurring. Figma’s inbuilt SVG export feature will help you remove transforms and other output simple shapes such as circle elements easily without using cryptic paths.

2. Layout Thrashing

Layout thrashing is not caused by a bug, it’s a performance issue that you should keep in mind when deciding the animation project’s narrative direction. It usually occurs when you make many drastic changes to the website pages abruptly or try to adjust the position and computed size of an element.

Have you ever skimped through a website only to become static at a given point, making it impossible for you to continue scrolling up or down? That is caused by layout thrashing and can be avoided by ensuring that you focus on transforming the main properties of the HTML element or SVG property and animating the opacity.

3. Unnecessarily Horizontal Scrolling

Unnecessary horizontal scroll bars and the resulting additional spaces can pop-up on previously responsive and fully functional websites.

This kind of problem is referred to as accidental overflow, and it occurs when you add an inline SVG with a width of more than 1440px to the target web page without first defining the CSS for how the image should be scaled at smaller sizes. One way of solving this problem is by creating a rule for all images to ensure they don’t exceed the set parent container.

                                      img, svg {max-width: 100% }

Animating individual shapes to or from an off-canvas portion of the website page can also result in a content overflow. Avoiding increasing the website pages’ width and having a clearly defined overflow property of the parent container or SVG will ensure that the shapes remain hidden.

                                  .generic-element { overflow: hidden }

4. Merging Paths Unintentionally

This problem often arises when creating animation illustrations using Illustrator or Sketch and going overboard when optimising the SVG. Experts recommend using SVGOMG to optimise the files as it has a user-friendly visual interface.

By leveraging this tool, you will be able to adjust the various optimisation settings individually. It will also show you how every change affects the visual output of the animation. It’s also important to note that most animation optimisation tools often merge shapes by default into several nodes. The nodes complicate the process, especially if your goal is to create an animation with overlapping orchestrations of more than one element.

Luckily, you can fix such problems on SVGOMG by ensuring that the merge paths are not toggled in the user interface’s sidebar. Also, ensure that optimised elements in your code output are well set and the quantity is not exceeded.

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Summing Up

Web page animations have the potential to catapult your business to the next level of success. Keep in mind the interest of the target customers when creating the animations to get the best results. Make sure that the animations are easy to understand and in line with the best website design practices.

Suppose the animation compromises your website’s design, then it’s best to get rid of it or request the developer to optimise it again to avoid hurting your business. Sure, A/B testing different animations will help you know which one should be included on a particular page, but it is also wise to ask for feedback from your team before incorporating them on the web pages.

For example, suppose a particular animation is meant to illustrate that a process is ongoing in the background. In that case, the marketing team can help you to know if it influences the buyer’s journey positively or negatively. With such valuable input, you will decide if you should use the animation or delete it.

MediaOne Marketing has a team of professional web designers and a vast network of talented animators who can create stellar animations for your website. We will work closely with you to ensure that the final animations match your expectations. We can also create laser-focused digital marketing campaigns to boost your website’s performance further and catapult the growth of your brand in Singapore.

Call us today on +65 6789 9852 or send us an email for more details. We won’t rest until you get to the top.