Motion is easy to add and hard to remove. Every animation feels justified on its own, but together they can make an interface feel slow, busy, and harder to read.
Give each animation a job
Useful motion does one of a few things: it shows where something came from, confirms an action, or draws attention to a change. If an animation does none of these, it is decoration.
Decoration is not forbidden, but it should be rare and deliberate.
Review the whole flow, not single moments
Individual animations are usually reviewed in isolation. The real test is going through a full journey and noticing how often you wait for the interface.
Repeated screens, frequent actions, and returning visitors deserve the least motion, because they see it most.
If someone notices the animation every time, it is probably slowing them down.
A simple review
We list every animation on a page and ask what would break without it. The ones with no clear answer are removed or simplified.
What remains tends to feel more intentional, and the moments that do move become easier to notice.
- List every animation in a journey.
- Name the job each one does.
- Remove those without a job.
- Shorten the rest and test again.
