From directing attention to charisma

We are well past the days when motion design was primarily intended to be "fun." Today, motion is a fully-fledged storytelling tool: a means of bringing direction, excitement, and meaning to your content or user interface. Motion controls the rhythm, breathing, and emotional tone of your story.

Every movement has a purpose: it draws attention, builds tension, or brings calm. It ensures that users understand what is happening without having to analyze it.

Movement can, for example:

Directing attention‍

Eyes instinctively follow movement, making motion a natural guide.

Evoking emotion

The right timing evokes confidence, energy, or calmness.

Provide context

Microanimations clarify navigation paths, provide users with confirmation, and increase engagement.

Supporting stories

Motion brings design to life, building suspense like in a cinematic narrative.

As a motion designer, it's important to subtly add the movement your design needs. Does your content feel like a too-sober salesperson? With thoughtful motion design, that same salesperson suddenly gains charisma and persuasiveness.

The data doesn't lie

Figures from recent UX studies show how meaningful motion interventions attract and retain visitors:

Motion design leads to a 24% increase in visit time or user retention in apps. (MoldStud)

Micro-interactions increase user satisfaction by 39% when it comes to first impressions. (ruttl)

70% of users feel more engaged when interfaces feature well-designed interaction elements. (MoldStud)

At the same time, speed remains crucial: 47% of visitors expect loading times of less than 2 seconds. (Founderjar)

Motion only works if it is light, fast, and purposeful. Avoid motion that is too heavy, distracting, and slows down the loading time of your website. The trick is to find the right balance between form, speed, and meaning.

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Apple designers show the way

Apple's iOS 26 is a striking example that illustrates the impact of motion design. iOS 26 shows how subtle movements can guide you along like an invisible guide.

Some examples:

• Soft fade: gradual transitions bring calm and focus.
• Depth: blurring of the background adds depth and helps users understand where they are.
• Logical scrolling direction: keep navigation simple—vertical for content, horizontal for menus.
• The right pace: by using various easing functions, you can create the desired rhythm and feel. You compose, as it were, by speeding up or slowing down animations by a few hundred milliseconds.

The thoughtful use of motion design ensures that iOS 26, launched in June, also feels natural, reliable, and innovative.

From idea to flow

Strong motion doesn't start with software, but with storytelling. At JaJa, we review every story or landing page with a broad content team: what is the purpose, what feeling do we want to convey, how do we approach it in terms of content, form, and movement?

Only then do we develop it technically, test it, and refine it until everyone involved is satisfied.

We work with various powerful tools, each of which plays its own role:

GSAP (GreenSock Animation Platform): a lightweight animation library that integrates directly into your code. Perfect for synchronizing movement with scrolling, clicking, or timing—without the risk of long load times.

Rive: to bring vector illustrations to life, for example as interactive components that respond to behavior. Rive workflows are also very smooth and flexible (compared to Lottie flows).

Spline: for 3D elements that add depth without slowing down load times. Also useful for particle effects, such as smoke, fire, rain, or snow.

This is how we build motion that remains functional while simultaneously reinforcing the brand identity and flow.

Your content doesn't move more, it moves more accurately. Or, in the words of our design team: "Motion should not stand out on its own—it should stand out because of what it makes tangible."

Motion makes the difference

At JaJa, we strongly focus on motion as a layer that brings a design to life and enables smooth interaction. Motion design is much more than decoration and therefore receives attention early on in our creative process.

The usage figures for our interactive scroll stories—which we create for KBC and Elia, among others—show that this approach works: visitors stay longer, read further, and feel more engaged with the story. (Read more about these results here.)

This confirms what we see every day: well-balanced motion design can guide, enhance, and deepen your content.