Motion Is a Sentence, Not Decoration

An animation that does not say anything is noise with good timing. The ones worth building explain where something came from and where it went.

The question we ask before building any motion is small and unforgiving: what does the reader understand after this that they did not understand before?

Three answers that justify it

• Where this came from — a panel that grows out of the button that opened it.
• That something happened — a change that would otherwise pass unseen.
• How much is left — progress that is honest about its own pace.

Anything that does not answer one of those three is decoration. Decoration is not forbidden, but it should know that is what it is, and it should be cheap.

Good motion is noticed when you remove it, not when you add it.

And all of it has an off switch. Someone who has asked their system for less movement asked for a reason.