Interaction • MARCH 14, 2024

Speed is easy to measure, so we tend to optimise for it. But an interface that respects the user's attention is doing something more difficult — and more valuable — than one that simply feels fast.

A well-timed transition tells a small story: this is where you came from, this is where you are now, this is what changed. Skip that story and the interface starts to feel like a slideshow. Overdo it and it feels performative. The craft is in the middle, somewhere quiet.

Motion should carry information, not decoration.

At Vireo we start every interaction sketch by asking what the motion is teaching. If the answer is "nothing", we cut it. If the answer is real — spatial continuity, hierarchy, response — we spend the time to get the easing right. That's usually where the feeling of quality comes from.

A slow interface is not a sluggish one. Response to input should still be immediate; a hover, a tap, a keypress deserves a sub-100ms acknowledgement. What can slow down is the pace at which new information arrives, so the eye and mind have time to settle before the next thing appears.

The tools we reach for most often are simple: layered easing curves that begin fast and end soft, generous negative space, and a willingness to let a page finish loading before it starts performing. None of that requires new frameworks — it requires patience during the design pass.

The clients we love the most tend to trust this instinct quickly. They know their audience isn't there to be dazzled. They're there to read, to decide, to buy, to book. An interface that gets out of the way is the highest compliment we can pay them.

If you're building something and want a second pair of eyes on its rhythm — the pacing between sections, the timing of a disclosure, the hand-off between pages — we're always happy to take a look.