This week in class, I was self-taught and would use the slides provided by my lecturer to get an understanding of the next step in this semester’s first project of Miro Interactions. Getting started, for me, it would be best to get an idea of what exactly micro-interactions are within UI/UX.
Before getting into any research, I thought it would be best to express what I think they are from the top of my head. To me, micro-interaction’s are a form of User experience build into the User Interface, with the biggest example of buttons. These interactions usually play a short and simple animation when the cursor may hover, enter, click or exit the buttons area, or even just a tap. The first example that comes to mind is the double tap like/ heart animation that is played when liking a post on Instagram.
Following this, After a quick and easy google search, I was pretty much on the button of what Micro-Interactions are, also, looking back on the previous week I found it fascinating to see just how many different types of interactions are, which just expands my thinking and idea generation.
I found it really cool how easy these areas could be broken down;
I really like this short diagram that shows just exactly how the effect of a ‘short and simple’ micro-interaction can have when used correctly. These notes I never really even thought of, particularly long term, even going as far as effecting the companies brand in many areas.
The Role of Micro-interactions in Modern UX
It was really interesting to find out that there’s actually a difference between Micro interaction and Micro Animation, as I originally thought they just feel all under one umbrella (Micro Interaction).
Now that I took a closer look, it makes sense to split areas up, as similar to UI/UX one area (Interactions) seems to focus on the mechanics/ functionality of when a user ‘Interacts’ with an element.
Whereas Micro-animation like UI, focuses on the visual aspects, making it look good, such as visuals, motions and or the ‘engagement’ of the user.