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Mastering Microinteractions: A Guide to Enhance User Engagement

Enhancing user experience through microinteractions is the ultimate goal of every company!

However, a question arises: how can they incorporate this concept into their app or website? In this blog post, we will explore this topic and provide insights on choosing microinteractions designs that perfectly align with the business goals, increasing the chances of customer retention through the apps.

Today, in this blog post, we will explore the world of microinteraction and its role in revolutionizing the digital world.

Let's get started!

What are Microinteractions?

Microinteractions are tiny, detailed animations that add a layer of interaction and responsiveness to the user experience. They are small, subtle, and unnoticed interactions within a user interface, typically consisting of 4 key components: trigger, feedback, rule, and loops.

Trigger -

The first part of microinteractions that the user or system can trigger. It encompasses user-initiated actions like clicking, swiping, scrolling, or pressing a button.

Feedback

It is essential for keeping users updated about what's happening during microinteractions. For example - If a user accidentally enters an incorrect card number, it will show the invalidation notification or change the border color to red, indicating a reason for not moving on to the next step.

Rule -

This aspect involves informing users about the expected outcomes after they have initiated an action, such as clicking on a particular icon. Here, user engagement increases by setting clear expectations and delivering the desired results which is key to successful microinteractions.

Loops

Microinteraction can also save users time, particularly during a visit for the next time. 

For e.g., After a user makes a first-time online payment, the user is asked to save their info for a future time. If they check the box, the system will automatically request the CVV the next time they pay instead of making the user fill in all the details.

Microinteractions and its role in UI/UX design

The main role of using microinteractions in UI/UX design is to provide feedback to users, keeping them engaged and well-informed.

It has been observed that many developers need to pay more attention to the importance of microinteractions, potentially leading to significant losses for clients and leaving customers dissatisfied. Therefore, integrating microinteractions in UX and microinteractions in UI can yield several benefits, including:

Feedback or responsiveness

Microinteraction ensures that users feel more responsive and interactive. This will create a sense of understanding and sense of control for users. When a certain action is performed on a website or app, microinteraction provides immediate feedback, confirming that the user's action has been acknowledged.

Connecting emotionally

Microinteractions can create an emotional connection between users and digital product usability. This is achieved through small design touches, like displaying a heart icon whenever a user clicks the like button.

These small touches create an emotional connection between users and their social media platform or app.

Identity of brand 

A brand's identity is frequently communicated through the interactive design elements the owners use and imagine. For example - the presence of playful animation that brings a smile to users' faces may lead users to perceive the website as fun and lighthearted.

On the other hand, a brand aiming for a more sophisticated design with simple buttons will indicate simplicity to users.

Retention

When these crucial factors are satisfied, they indirectly contribute to the brand's retention strategy. Engaging and well-executed microinteractions can enhance the overall user experience, encouraging users to enjoy and spend more time on the website or app. For the long-term success of any digital product, improving user retention will bring more profit and growth to the company.

Well-known microinteractions examples

Reordering a task list

Reordering a task list is a common microinteractions in to-do applications and project management tools. Users can change their order or prioritize elements as they see fit, allowing for a personalized organization of tasks.

Sharing location

This microinteractions design is commonly used in location-sharing applications. It serves two primary purposes: either a user shares their location or requests someone else to share their location. The microinteractions enhance the process by sending a notification or displaying a pin sign to indicate that the location has been shared, making location sharing more informative and user-friendly.

Search Expansion

These particular microinteractions assist users in refining their search queries. For example - When users click on the search bar, a magnifying glass might transfer into a large search field, and along with it, search filters may become visible.

This indirectly will give a feedback mechanism that the search is active and allow them to specify the search criteria, resulting in a more user-friendly search experience.

Swiping to select

The microinteraction is used to select or unselect a particular item while selecting a particular item. For e.g., While selecting a message, swiping left or right may reveal options to delete, reply, or apply emojis at your convenience. The swiping interactions are efficient and ensure that content can be managed with minimal effort.

Small animations to improve UX design

Small animations, or micro animation, are crucial in influencing user behavior, communicating status, and helping the user experience; consider using creative animations instead of conventional loading indicators like a circular wheel or progress bar. Below are a few examples that will explain how you can improve the experience through UI/UX:

Loading doesn't have to be boring

Users often need more patience and prefer minimal loading time when they perform or take a particular course of action. To keep the user's experience delightful, consider using creative animations instead of a circular wheel or a progress bar.

Design state change without hard cuts

The microinteractions design, when elements on a webpage or app change from one state to another, should be done keeping in mind that it's done smoothly without any cuts.

E.g. - When a user clicks a button to reveal more content, consider incorporating a transition or fade in effect to experience the transition from the previous state to the new one more visually appealing.

Relationship with elements

Animation can be used to convey the relationships between elements or to provide context. For example - When a user selects an item, you can use an animation to visually demonstrate how one element relates to other elements on the screen., improving the overall user experience.

Using feedback that highlights when something went wrong

When a user makes an error, make sure that you notify it by drawing the user's attention through gentle animation.

Final thoughts

We hope you gained a deep insight into microinteractions and their crucial role in creating a user-friendly and engaging UI/UX design. We also went through well-known microinteractions examples that are popular and widely adopted by users. 

Microloop IT Solution, USA has expertise in providing companies with services that keep them one step ahead in the competitive landscape. Our solutions aim to enhance customer satisfaction for them.