Motion Design, the Future
Skill Level: Novice
Article by: Daniel Jenett

Human Interaction

Almost everything that happens in a digital way requires some human involvement that gets translated onto screens, so that the person involved can make sense of it. This is true for PCs as much as for TV, mobile and fixed phones, for coffee machines, dishwashers, airplanes and so on. Almost everything electric is now electronic and is enhanced with digital technology. It's one thing that connects the machine technology to the user: the interface.

To understand the way the digital device 'ticks' is only possible with the help of a professional translator, a designer of the interface. His responsibility is to give visual form to the data that the machine surfaces. Regardless of where it comes from, be it the web, TV content or a machine interface, wherever there is image and type involved, it requires the eye of a graphic designer to give optimal sense to the content, to communicate the information.

There are more dimensions that have to be taken into consideration in this digital form than in the paper-based world. Interaction is possible and takes on various new shapes, even more important for the eye: Everything is in motion. When the screen appears to be static, it's really redrawing the same picture over and over. But more significant, is the rapid increase in digital design that makes use of 30 changed frames per second: Animation.

Everybody knows this, everybody has seen enough blinking, shifting, and glowing in the early days, replaced by random lines and the various loading spectacles today. This will increase, every possible thing that can be animated will be animated to get more attention from the viewer and to simply look more refined. It's entertaining. But is it design?

Sure, it's design, I think, the design of animated web sites. It is not yet graphic or communication design, which follows a certain concept to communicate a brand or an idea in visual form. But, it's slowly becoming, and has to be, a part of the new graphic design. In the same way as a corporate design has specific consistently used color-schemes, typographic styles and rules and. of course, a logo, it must have a unique motion and sound design.

By creating a footprint for a specific visual product, the identity becomes unique, recognizable, and hard to copy. On top of that, the screen object should take away confusion and comfort the user with the ease of a subconscious recognition.

Contents

• Unrestricted Broadband
• Human Interaction
• Motion Design Options
• Get Started with Motion Design

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