Microinteractions: Stuff that Makes a Website Fun

Microinteractions are essential for social websites

You open up a website, let’s say a clothing portal. You click on a pair of shorts you like, and instead of just showing a few static pictures of those shorts in a normal slideshow format, there are a few extra zingy things added, making the experience a lot personal.

Welcome to the world of microinteractions, a design trend of 2019, and what could very well be, beyond.

Microinteractions can be just a pop of color or that bell letting you know you have a notification or message or it can be a small form of animation — a bunch of roses or hearts, say, that move around, after you’ve swiped right on your preferred date partner.

All of these microinteractions enhances the user experience and gives them a “this is fun, yup I’m coming back to this website” feeling.

User experience and its importance is so obvious now that anything that creates any form of interaction with the user and makes the website feel…more human…immediately gives the website that resonance factor.

Microinteractions can come in various forms, and which ones you use, what kinds you want, and how intricate or complicated you want them entirely depends on your design.

But, regardless of the type of microinteraction, it is difficult to imagine a world without them.

Without microinteractions, you wouldn’t know what’s going on, most of the time

How boring would it be if you click on the reload or refresh button and there was absolutely nothing to show what you asked for is actually happening — no rotating symbol, no up and down movement, nothing.

Or imagine if you were told nothing when you open your Instagram app or Facebook app — no sign of a notification, no follower/friend requests, no updates, nothing. If it’s a social media site, you might get a little depressed thinking nobody likes you, due to your lack of notifications or activity from others, but the actual case would be a lack of microinteractions.

Now, thanks to those microinteractions, you know exactly what’s happening — if you have a notification, a message or a comment.

How boring would Facebook be without microinteractions

While the importance of microinteractions might be obvious (or, at least, we hope we have convinced you about its importance) in a user-friendly/user-heavy social media app environment, a lot of designers and developers might think: Is it really necessary for a not-social, more-professional less-user-heavy website?

It is a little unfortunate that a lot of designers still ask that question, considering the numerous advantages that a microinteraction can bring to a website.

Here are just a few of the brilliant benefits:

· It keeps the user engaged

· It immediately brings a smile to the user’s face, making them come back a lot more often to the website

· It shows an attention to detail, which the user always appreciates

· It brings about a personalized feeling; again, something that makes the user feel good about the website

· It makes the UI a lot clearer

· It provides visual tips to the users

· The navigation of the website is immediately in the top notch category

· The website becomes more social, encouraging interactions and sharing

There are just a few of the benefits of microinteractions.

However, you can see with the list above, just how important they are and why they are one of the most important trends in design in 2019.

What some designers forget is that a website should not just be about great color, content and font, there are a bunch of other things to give attention to, none more than microinteractions.

A few fun icons that move or blink is all it takes

They add life to your website, and, if you ask us, it’s these microinteractions that turns a normal, run-of-the-mill website into a great, shareable one.

Of course, just adding microinteractions for the sake of adding them or just because you read they are “trending” in 2019 won’t immediately make your website great.

You need to put some time into it, immerse yourself fully and take a trip to the “attention to detail” wonderland and figure out, what, why, where and how these microinteractions will help your users interact better with the website, and immediately make them feel right at home.

When designed right, microinteractions can be the one of the primary reasons for a user to keep coming back. They emanate a positive vibe, which your user will also immediately latch on to, making them come back for more, time and again.

Keep updating those microinteractions or adding onto them (but make sure you don’t make it too heavy on them) and soon you will find that the user is hooked to your website, because they know you care and they can feel it too.

That is the power of microinteractions.

So, what are you waiting for? Get back to that computer and start designing a kick-ass set of microinteractions that will make your website or your client’s into one of the best in the business.

And, nope, no need to thank us. Just send us a few of your samples, so that we can feature them, the next time we write on this wonderful thing that is a microinteraction.