What are microinteractions, you ask? They’re those little moments when a user engages with your product (or app or website) to complete one task and one task only. Think about changing the temperature, turning on a faucet, rating a song online, sharing this post (please do), or using a search bar.
Launching a campaign with MailChimp is a fun microinteraction. And the animation drops a subtle hint: double-check your work so you’re not sweating the launch.
Such interactions can be dull and forgettable, even maddening. Or, they can be so memorable – the Facebook Like or “You’ve got mail!” – that they become part of a brand as well as part of our culture. Which category do yours fit into?
Here are a few ways we seek to improve microinteractions at Pappas MacDonnell:
Anticipate user needs
Eliminate the possibility of operator error
Use existing screen elements to provide feedback (instead of creating more clutter)
Speak more like humans
In this microinteraction, Gmail spares you some embarrassment.
Designed well, microinteractions can increase user engagement, adoption and loyalty. Dan Saffer, who literally wrote the book on the subject, declares that microinteractions are “the difference between products we love and those we simply tolerate.” For something so small, that’s a pretty big deal.
See what they have to say