I've been thinking about the possibility of fading animated messages and whether they are appropriate for a web or desktop interface. These are messages that appear right at the point of interaction, and then float and fade away.

This idea was spurred by noticing that some television programs are making use of occasional animated fading text which floats away from the person speaking. The BBCs Human planet and I think Sherlock are some examples amongst others. In this instance I think it's quite effective and a more contextual and engaging method than standard subtitles.

I notice this kind of animation in Google+. Here's the example below using Google Circles - and you can try it for yourself using the Google Plus Demo without having to have a Google+ account.

After you drag & drop the person in the circle there are two pieces of animation that happen at the same time.

    a) The user is added to the outside of the circle and moves anticlockwise around the circle until it reaches the last empty position

    b) A green +1 symbol fades in and floats upwards and then disappears.

My instant reaction the first time was: Whoa! - What was that?. I think this was made worse by the fact that there was two animations happening at once, but I was more interested in the +1 notification fading in and floating away, than the rotating avatar.

As another example, right here on Stack Exchange, when you visit a chat room, your avatar floats gently down from the top of the screen and disappears, presumably as a notifcation that 'someone has just dropped in'.

Back to my question - Is there any evidence to show that these animated feedback messages improve the quality of the feedback, especially in situations where you may not easily have the opportunity to repeat or re-live the sequence in order to see what happened after the notification has faded away. Once it's gone, it's gone.

My feeling is that they are more engaging; in better context because of their positioning, and not too invasive due to their transient nature, but I don't have any real information to go on.

This UX SE question: How and when should you use animation in your application is certainly relevant, but my question is specifically about fading animated messages in the UI, that disappear like in this Google+ feature, not just the common button motion, page sliding, lightbox fading etc.

To clarify: these are messages (text or symbols) that appear right at the point of interaction, and then float away and fade out.

You see this kind of animation when adding people to your Circle in Google+. A green +1 symbol floats up and disappears. You can see this for yourself using the Google Plus Demo without having to have a Google+ account.

Here on Stack Exchange, when you visit a chat room, your avatar floats gently down from the top of the screen and disappears, presumably as a notifcation that 'someone has just dropped in'.

It's common practice in platform games and immersive environments where points scored, or 'new life' symbols appear and then float away.

And we're starting to see this more on television where occasional animated fading text floats away from the relevant person. The BBCs Human planet and Sherlock are some examples.

My feeling is they are: more engaging compared to common status bars and message areas; contextual because of their localized positioning; flexible because of their free movement and independence from page structure and layout; not too invasive due to their transient nature.

But perhaps not so good in situations where you may not easily have the opportunity to repeat or re-live the prior sequence in order to see what happened after the notification has faded away, since once it's gone, it's gone.

So when is it appropriate to use this mechanism?

I've been thinking about the possibility of fading animated messages and whether they are appropriate for a web or desktop interface. These are messages that appear right at the point of interaction, and then float and fade away.

This idea as spurred by noticing that some television programs are making use of occasional animated fading text which floats away from the person speaking. The BBCs Human planet and I think Sherlock are some examples amongst others. In this instance I think it's quite effective and a more contextual and engaging method than standard subtitles.

I notice this kind of animation in Google+. Here's the example below using Google Circles - and you can try it for yourself using the Google Plus Demo without having to have a Google+ account.

After you drag & drop the person in the circle there are two pieces of animation that happen at the same time.

    a) The user is added to the outside of the circle and moves anticlockwise around the circle until it reaches the last empty position

    b) A green +1 symbol fades in and floats upwards and then disappears.

My instant reaction the first time was: Whoa! - What was that?. I think this was made worse by the fact that there was two animations happening at once, but I was more interested in the +1 notification fading in and floating away, than the rotating avatar.

As another example, right here on Stack Exchange, when you visit a chat room, your avatar floats gently down from the top of the screen and disappears, presumably as a notifcation that 'someone has just dropped in'.

Back to my question - Is there any evidence to show that these animated feedback messages improve the quality of the feedback, especially in situations where you may not easily have the opportunity to repeat or re-live the sequence in order to see what happened after the notification has faded away. Once it's gone, it's gone.

My feeling is that they are more engaging; in better context because of their positioning, and not too invasive due to their transient nature, but I don't have any real information to go on.

This UX SE question: How and when should you use animation in your application is certainly relevant, but my question is specifically about fading animated messages in the UI, that disappear like in this Google+ feature, not just the common button motion, page sliding, lightbox fading etc.

I've been thinking about the possibility of fading animated messages and whether they are appropriate for a web or desktop interface. These are messages that appear right at the point of interaction, and then float and fade away.

This idea was spurred by noticing that some television programs are making use of occasional animated fading text which floats away from the person speaking. The BBCs Human planet and I think Sherlock are some examples amongst others. In this instance I think it's quite effective and a more contextual and engaging method than standard subtitles.

I notice this kind of animation in Google+. Here's the example below using Google Circles - and you can try it for yourself using the Google Plus Demo without having to have a Google+ account.

After you drag & drop the person in the circle there are two pieces of animation that happen at the same time.

    a) The user is added to the outside of the circle and moves anticlockwise around the circle until it reaches the last empty position

    b) A green +1 symbol fades in and floats upwards and then disappears.

My instant reaction the first time was: Whoa! - What was that?. I think this was made worse by the fact that there was two animations happening at once, but I was more interested in the +1 notification fading in and floating away, than the rotating avatar.

As another example, right here on Stack Exchange, when you visit a chat room, your avatar floats gently down from the top of the screen and disappears, presumably as a notifcation that 'someone has just dropped in'.

Back to my question - Is there any evidence to show that these animated feedback messages improve the quality of the feedback, especially in situations where you may not easily have the opportunity to repeat or re-live the sequence in order to see what happened after the notification has faded away. Once it's gone, it's gone.

My feeling is that they are more engaging; in better context because of their positioning, and not too invasive due to their transient nature, but I don't have any real information to go on.

This UX SE question: How and when should you use animation in your application is certainly relevant, but my question is specifically about fading animated messages in the UI, that disappear like in this Google+ feature, not just the common button motion, page sliding, lightbox fading etc.

I've been thinking about the possibility of fading animated messages and whether they are appropriate for a web or desktop interface.

This was spurred by noticing that some television programs are making use of occasional animated fading text which floats away from the person speaking. The BBCs Human planet and I think Sherlock are some examples amongst others. In this instance I think it's quite effective and a more contextual and engaging method than standard subtitles.

Then recently when using Google+ I noticed this kind of animation actually being utilized. Here's the example below using Google Circles - and you can try it for yourself using the Google Plus Demo without having to have a Google+ account.

When you add people to your circle there are several animated phases:

1. As you drag a person over the circle, the circle expands around the edges to show other users also in that circle.

That's OK because as you move the mouse back out of the circle, the animation reverses and you don't have to really undo anything as such to see what just happened.

2. After you drop the person in the circle there are two pieces of animation that happen at the same time.

    a) The user is added to the outside of the circle and moves anticlockwise around the circle until it reaches the last empty position

    b) A green +1 symbol fades in and floats upwards and then disappears.

My instant reaction the first time was: Whoa! - What was that?. I think this was made worse by the fact that there was two animations happening at once, but I was more interested in the +1 notification fading in and floating away, than the rotating avatar.

Immediately afterwards, I wanted to remove the person from my circle and add them again so that I could see it happen again - except that I wasn't sure if people get notified when they are removed from a circle. So I found someone else to add instead.

As another example, right here on Stack Exchange, when you visit a chat room, your avatar floats gently down from the top of the screen and disappears, presumably as a notifcation that 'someone has just dropped in'.

Are these examples a good use of animated feedback on the web? And, back to my question - should a web interface even make use of animated feedback in situations where you may not easily have the opportunity to repeat or re-live the sequence in order to see what happened after the notification has faded away.

This UX SE question: How and when should you use animation in your application is certainly relevant, but my question is specifically about fading animation sequences in the UI, that disappear like this Google+ feature, not just button motion, page sliding, lightbox fading etc.

Are their other examples of animated fading notifications?

I've been thinking about the possibility of fading animated messages and whether they are appropriate for a web or desktop interface. These are messages that appear right at the point of interaction, and then float and fade away.

This idea as spurred by noticing that some television programs are making use of occasional animated fading text which floats away from the person speaking. The BBCs Human planet and I think Sherlock are some examples amongst others. In this instance I think it's quite effective and a more contextual and engaging method than standard subtitles.

I notice this kind of animation in Google+. Here's the example below using Google Circles - and you can try it for yourself using the Google Plus Demo without having to have a Google+ account.

After you drag & drop the person in the circle there are two pieces of animation that happen at the same time.

    a) The user is added to the outside of the circle and moves anticlockwise around the circle until it reaches the last empty position

    b) A green +1 symbol fades in and floats upwards and then disappears.

My instant reaction the first time was: Whoa! - What was that?. I think this was made worse by the fact that there was two animations happening at once, but I was more interested in the +1 notification fading in and floating away, than the rotating avatar.

As another example, right here on Stack Exchange, when you visit a chat room, your avatar floats gently down from the top of the screen and disappears, presumably as a notifcation that 'someone has just dropped in'.

Back to my question - Is there any evidence to show that these animated feedback messages improve the quality of the feedback, especially in situations where you may not easily have the opportunity to repeat or re-live the sequence in order to see what happened after the notification has faded away. Once it's gone, it's gone.

My feeling is that they are more engaging; in better context because of their positioning, and not too invasive due to their transient nature, but I don't have any real information to go on.

This UX SE question: How and when should you use animation in your application is certainly relevant, but my question is specifically about fading animated messages in the UI, that disappear like in this Google+ feature, not just the common button motion, page sliding, lightbox fading etc.