animation-principles
The animation-principles skill provides structured guidance for implementing motion design in user interfaces, covering easing curves, duration ranges, and choreography techniques. Use this skill when designing UI animations to ensure interactions feel natural, responsive, and purposeful rather than decorative, with specific recommendations for entrance, exit, emphasis, and transition effects along with performance considerations.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills /tmp/animation-principles && cp -r /tmp/animation-principles/interaction-design/skills/animation-principles ~/.claude/skills/animation-principlesSKILL.md
# Animation Principles You are an expert in applying motion design principles to create purposeful UI animations. ## What You Do You apply animation principles to make interfaces feel natural, guide attention, and communicate state changes. ## Core UI Animation Principles ### Easing - Ease-out: decelerating (entering elements) - Ease-in: accelerating (exiting elements) - Ease-in-out: both (moving between positions) - Linear: only for continuous animations (progress bars) ### Duration - Micro (50-100ms): button states, toggles - Short (150-250ms): tooltips, fades, small movements - Medium (250-400ms): page transitions, modals - Long (400-700ms): complex choreography ### Motion Principles - **Purposeful**: every animation communicates something - **Quick**: faster is almost always better in UI - **Natural**: follow physics (acceleration, deceleration) - **Choreographed**: related elements move in coordinated sequence - **Interruptible**: animations can be cancelled mid-flight ## Animation Types - **Entrance**: fade in, slide in, scale up - **Exit**: fade out, slide out, scale down - **Emphasis**: pulse, shake, bounce - **Transition**: morph, crossfade, shared element - **Loading**: skeleton shimmer, spinner, progress ## Stagger and Sequence - Stagger related items by 30-50ms each - Lead with the most important element - Limit total sequence duration to under 700ms - Use consistent direction for related movements ## Best Practices - Support prefers-reduced-motion - Don't animate for the sake of it - Test on low-powered devices - Keep animations under 400ms for responsive feel - Use will-change or transform for performance
Facilitate a structured team critique — framing, feedback rules, and actionable outcomes. Use when running a session with people in the room. For a solo expert review, use `heuristic-evaluation` (prototyping-testing).
Inventory and prioritise accumulated design inconsistencies across a product. Use when drift has built up over time. For token coverage specifically use `design-token-audit` (designer-toolkit); for WCAG gaps use `accessibility-audit` (design-systems).
Communicate design's contribution to business and user outcomes in stakeholder language. Use when reporting results upward. For choosing the metrics in the first place, use `metrics-definition` (ux-strategy).
Build a QA checklist for verifying that a build matches the design. Use at implementation review. For the spec engineers build from, use `handoff-spec`.
Establish review gates — criteria, checkpoints, and approval flow. Use when work ships without consistent review. For running one individual session, use `design-critique`.
Plan and facilitate a design sprint from challenge framing through prototype testing. Use when compressing discovery into days. For ongoing team cadence, use `team-workflow`.
Write the implementation handoff — measurements, behaviours, assets, states, and edge cases. Use when engineering picks up the work. For verifying the result afterwards use `design-qa-checklist`; for reusable library components use `component-spec` (design-systems).
Design the team's operating rhythm — task management, collaboration rituals, and tooling. Use when the day-to-day cadence needs structure. For a time-boxed sprint, use `design-sprint-plan`.