Motion is the most powerful and most abused tool in web design. A single well-timed reveal can make a brand feel premium; a dozen competing ones make it feel like a slot machine. Here's how we decide what moves.
Three jobs motion can do
- Orientation — showing where something came from or where it went.
- Emphasis — drawing the eye to the one thing that matters right now.
- Personality — expressing the brand's character through timing and easing.
Every animation in our projects has to do at least one of these jobs. Most of the best do two.
Easing is the brand's body language. Linear feels robotic. Expo-out feels confident.
Timing that feels human
Our defaults: 600–1200ms for large reveals with an exponential ease-out, 200–400ms for interface feedback, and never more than three things moving at once in the viewport. Stagger creates rhythm; too much stagger creates waiting.
Finally, respect people who don't want motion. Every site we ship honours reduced-motion preferences, swapping choreography for simple fades without losing any content.
