A problem, however, that is faced when implementing motion is communication. Designers are often dreamers, who know how to add motion to their design prototypes in the hopes of having developers implement said ideas into the finished products. This isn’t usually the case, as budget, time and skill constraints are issues, and the work more often than not, is finished without the dream realized, leaving the product with half-baked, and sometimes fully missing animations that designers would be powerless to correct in review or be completely unaware of (sometimes due to negligence, or the budget not being enough to fund the designer staying on). Hence, it is crucial for every member of the team to know just how much micro-animations improve the product being made. Looking at you, developer… Aside from the form function argument that elevates the individual product, it is also crucial in the modern product market since people are continually inundated with various digital goods and services. Products need to provide a distinctive and compelling user experience that sets them apart from their competitors in order to stand out from the crowd. One might look at certain products and say, “Hey, this doesn’t look anywhere close to being good, yet it has a large user base that is fine with it.” The truth is, users are fine with what just works as long as it serves two major reasons: There isn’t a competitor, or at least a good enough competitor, out there. Most niche industry products depend on this - supermarket systems, flight systems, internal CRMs etc. The sunk cost fallacy- the amount of investment (time, sometimes money) and history a user has made on a product makes it quite difficult to jump ship. This became the reason for the continual user base of X, formerly Twitter, despite the introduction of Threads, a similar platform with less frequency of changes as X; there is simply too much history on that platform for Threads to have taken over. Note that only a fraction of platforms in the world can boast of this much investment sunk into them. Micro animations also play a part in a product's overall personality and tone. They give designers the chance to add character and charm to the product, which in turn improves its usability, retainability and relatability. For instance, there are more than 5 alternatives to Airbnb, none of which I had any idea of before attempting this article. Say what you will about the actual service of Airbnbs but once you open the app on web or mobile, you can see how focused on experience the platform is when it comes to design. There’s a micro animation in practically every section you venture into, and they are all so done well and fit into the theme seamlessly. I could produce multiple screenshots from multiple Vacation rental apps and you would most likely be able to tell Airbnb’s apart. It is important that we do not overload the user with motion though; the idea is to bridge the gap between the user and a product in ways that feel intuitive and seamless, so we might want to stay away from complex animations that take a while to load or animation that might distract the user. One of the cruxes that users currently have to battle with are interactions and animations that do not serve to push contextual narratives forward; that sometimes even counter-serve the purpose of the platform. As with any tool, the effectiveness lies in the hands of the user.