Smaller elements of a web design are often referred to as microinteractions. This is because in and of themselves, they appear to be of little significance to the experience, but because they blend into the rest of the web page design, they can often make a huge difference in improving the overall user experience. These interactions help to enhance how information is presented, and when done correctly, they do not distract the user or take attention away from what is being communicated.
Web design Auckland shares some key ways you can effectively include these microinteractions in your next design project.
Keep Things up to Speed
If the decision to include a microinteraction in your web design slows down the user experience, and makes users feel negatively towards loading times, it is better off to not include them in the overall design. Another option would be to find a different way to include the interaction in the design. Oe even better, find a way to add microinteractions to elements that are already present in the web design Auckland so it does double duty. By letting a design element serve more than one purpose, it helps to reduce the need for more information to be processed when a page is loading, thus improving the user experience.
Be Purposeful
One of the most important things about microinteractions is to be purposeful when including them in the web design. If the interaction is not designed to drive a specific action from the user, then it is not going to be seen as useful by the user. When the interaction is no longer useful, it has become a distraction from the design and should be eliminated. By taking some additional time to think through the multiple elements of the design, including every microinteraction, the user will be more engaged with the design, and their experience is improved.
Keeping It Simple
When looking at some of the more popular web designs that have incorporate microinteractions effectively, many of them are very simple designs. For instance, the ability to simply like or dislike a posting on a social media site not only helps to engage users with interacting with the site, but also to interact with one another. This may appear to be extremely simplistic, but the purpose of social media is to engage users and have them engage with one another. The result of this simple design aspect has resulted in the success of social media being able to encourage interactions amongst users worldwide. Other microinteractions in web design Auckland are also just as simple, serve a specific function, and are well thought out, making them effective in enhancing the overall user experience.
Enhance the Brand
When looking to incorporate microinteraction, it is important to be mindful of the brand the web design is seeking to present to the user. Interactions should help to further the brand that has already been established, and not create confusion for the user. For instance, if the web site is designed to sell luxury items, the brand is most likely one that is more refined and sophisticated in its presentation. However, a web design for a video game company is more likely to be focused on catching gamers’ attention with fast paced graphics and action in line with their games. If either of these interactions were found in the web design of the other company’s web page, it would likely detract from the user experience. Users would be distracted and the company is likely to lose users as a result, making it essential for all microinteractions help to enhance the existing brand and not detract from it.
Francesca
