A review of “Why micro-interactions are the secret to great design.”

In this article Carrie Cousins explores the relationship of “Micro-Interactions” to great design. Micro-interactions as she explains are small, and often overlooked, interactions that we have on a daily basis with our digital devices. Well designed micro-interactions are so simple and and natural that your hardly notice how you are interacting.

Myself, not being familiar with micro-interactions as a concept, have to agree with the author that “God is in the detail” here, I come across these actions everyday and yes some of them are so well done, I hardly notice them, others, not so much. In which case maybe its the devil.

Examples would be skipping a song on a music player, replying to a text message. Micro-interactions are the controls and actions that guide us through the various screens or tasks in an application. As Carrie explains “Each of these interaction types lead users to a path of more human-centered design.” It is here that Carries believes that micro-interactions are the path to better usability.

In order to better understand how micro-interactions do what they do, Carrie references Dan Saffer, who literally wrote the book on this topic. Dan breaks micro interactions down into a “four-part structure” made up of the following:

• Trigger: Initiates an action
• Rules: What happens in the interaction
• Feedback: How you know what’s happening
• Loops and Modes: What happens next

Dan believes that every interactions includes these four parts and they
“create a cycle for how things work,” and cleverly points our that
“most people don’t even know or think about micro-interaction contact
unless something goes wrong.”

Carrie further explains that these simple interactions so deeply affect
the usability of an app/device that they are often what leads people
choose one app/device over another. The weight and impact of
something so small, and simple, is what can make designing these
elements so tricky.

She then lays out a set of guidelines to keep in mind when you are
designing these small elements, which I have summarized below.

• Micro-interactions must live on through repeated use.
• Simplicity rules.
• Give each micro-interaction a human voice.
• Add a fun divot with animation, but don’t go crazy.
• Create a visual harmony with other elements.
• Don’t overthink it.
• Consider each detail with care.
• Think about further adaptations or how subsequent micro
interactions will work.

To prove that micro-interactions are not just some design trend,
Carrie offers that Google has taken and interest by defining how they
should be designed in their material design documentation. She states
that Google believes user appeal in micro-interactions comes most
frequently in the form of natural or lifelike animations.

The article concludes by emphasizing that these “micro-interactions
are firmly planted in our everyday contact with the digital world around
us. Carrie re-emphasizes the importance of not focusing on
the esthetics so much as the actions, and to keep in mind common
design patterns that you see. She then asks the reader to try out an
animation editor to create a quick micro-interactions prototype. When
you click on the link you are redirected to the UXPIN site where you
can try out there protoyping app free for 7 days. I’ll give it a shot and
let you know what I think.