When a Designer makes Turkish Coffee… 🙈☕️
Lessons in UI hierarchy, caffeine and the joys of a half-asleep brain :D
Is that cup moving?! 😱
This morning I was peacefully making my parents their morning cup of coffee and it was about to boil when I noticed that one of the two cups I had placed nearby was creepily sliding on the granite entirely on it’s own..
Apparently, I haven’t noticed that there was a spot of water on the counter where I had placed that cup and while I stirred the coffee it started to skid happily on it’s merry way along the granite so I immediately let go of the coffee and caught the cup before it crashed. In that moment the coffee boiled over and I had to clean the stove afterwards 😪
Lesson 1: Moving elements are the most contrasting part of a UI design
The cup was really on the far edge of my vision to the left side; in spite of that it immediately caught my attention when it started moving.
This proves that moving elements will always catch a user’s eye if they are the only thing moving on a screen. think about it, you would look at a chat bubble if it pops into view after loading the page, but would most likely miss it if it’s a static box in the same location.
So make sure to really think about where you want people to look before you animate an element, use animation to direct attention, not to distract.
Good examples:
- animating a search bar icon on page load if that’s where you want users to start their journey.
- entrance animation of an alert message. We add alerts to communicate important pieces of information so don’t make it static.
- apple’s wrong password input field animation. It communicates the error better than any style change.
Lesson 2: Caffeine is good
had I drank a black cup of tea before starting my day I would have noticed the water on the countertop, or at least took the coffee off the heat when the cup started moving 😕 😅 I had worked out and washed up before the coffee-cup-drama but still, brain was still kinda groggy. Need caffeine.
But hey, at least the house is not haunted and cups don’t just move around on their own, right? I’d clean the stove a hundred times as long as ghosts stay far far away.
That’s my story! thought it was nice to share the impact of being a designer on the little moments of our lives :D until next time, lots of love and #keepdesigning
