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07 Dec

Best Practices For Animated Progress Indicators

by TBSCategories: News

Visibility of system status is one of the most important principles in user interface design. Users want to feel in control of the system they’re using, which means they want to know and understand their current context at any given time, and especially when a system is busy doing work. A wait-animation progress indicator is the most common form of providing a system status for users when something is happening or loading.

An adorable animated kitten on blue background

While an instant response from an app is the best, there are times when your app won’t be able to comply with the guidelines for speed. A slow response could be caused by a bad internet connection, or an operation itself can take a long time (e.g. install an update for OS). For such cases, in order to minimize user tension, you must reassure users that the app is working on their request and that actual progress is being made. Thus, you should provide feedback to the user about what is happening with the app within a reasonable amount of time.

The post Best Practices For Animated Progress Indicators appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Smashing Magazine

21 Oct

What’s The Best Practices for Website Migrations?

by TBSCategories: News

Yes! You’ve hit and actually surpassed your milestone of growing your ecommerce business. Things are looking up. You’re getting the kind of traffic and conversion rate you’ve been hoping for. Growing your ecommerce business is great news, until you realize that your current platform can’t handle the increased traffic.

When this happens, it’s time for an upgrade.

Some people are able to make the right choice the first time when it comes to enterprise e-commerce platforms, opting for a platform that can support growth without robbing your pockets in transaction fees. Others fail to plan for growth and find that their current platforms cannot support the growth of their online business.

If you fall in the second category, you may be planning for the migration of your website to a new ecommerce platform. This can seem like a nerve-wracking process. It is both time consuming and complex.

Website downtime can be costly to a business. In 2013, ecommerce giant Amazon experienced a 30-minute downtime due to a website crash. This resulted in an estimated loss of $ 66 million in revenue.

Therefore, going dark for hours on end during the migration is something you want to avoid. The transition from one ecommerce platform to another doesn’t have to be a nightmare. It shouldn’t cost you a whole lot in revenue, either.

The following tips will help to make the migration as painless as possible:

1. Begin migration before canceling your current hosting plan

One of the most common mistakes ecommerce website administrators make is canceling their hosting plan with their current host before the transfer of their website to the new servers is complete. The transfer may take several hours or even a day or two. If you cancel your plan before completing this process, you’ll experience several hours of downtime and lose a lot of revenue as a result.

It is a good idea to let your current host know that you’ll be moving to a new host. However, give yourself adequate time to make the migration successfully before canceling your current plan to ensure that customers can still make transactions while you migrate.

2. Create and download backup files

One of the key steps in migration is moving the data from your current host servers to the new servers. You will have to create backup files of your website and download them. This process will depend on the interface you use. Your database will be downloaded in compressed format.

It is important not to decompress the files. This is a process that your new server will complete once the files have been uploaded.

3. Redirect links

Link building is part of any effective SEO strategy. The growth of your website could be the result of wise and effective link building over months or even years. Losing the links that you’ve accumulated over the years could destroy your ability to rank for relevant search terms.

Run a site check of the links on your website using a site explorer tool, such as Moz’s Open Site Explorer. You can also check on the link status of your website from your Google Search Console account.

Set permanent redirects of your links so that they point at the same pages on the new site as they did on the old site. Visitors coming to your site using these links will be redirected to the new pages and will never notice the difference.

4. Testing

Make sure everything on the new site works just as well or even better than the old site. Test all aspects of your website. Pay special attention to interactive features that customers are likely to use. Identify problems early and ensure they are addressed before the website goes live.

Remember that over 40 percent of consumers will abandon your website for the competition if it takes over three seconds to load. Don’t risk losing revenue by staying with a server that cannot meet your needs. Don’t risk migrating without taking heed of the tips provided above.

Onextrapixel – Web Design and Development Online Magazine

16 Sep

Waiting Animations – Best Practices and Creative Examples

by TBSCategories: News

Waiting animations are ‘literally’ everywhere. Almost every second website created by an agency that is perfectly aware of modern trends and requirements as well as is worried about providing online visitors with an excellent user experience, is equipped with such a sort of dynamic element.

Although today we focus more on loading progress indicators that, as a rule, welcome online readers and strengthen the first impression, in fact, waiting animations occur in absolutely different parts of a project. It can be an animation that accompanies the transition between two inner pages, sections, or slides; it can be an animation that marks the submission of data or changing status; or just an animation that saves the day when the website crashes. It finds application in various fields and brings benefits in different situations. Whether you are going to populate every page of your site with it or just add a waiting animation to only one item, it will definitely help your users feel more comfortable and not irritated when they need to experience some pauses and delays caused by the system.

Waiting Animations

Since progress bars that aim to indicate loading status of a website are the most popular option, we have listed fresh examples of interesting variants of them. Let’s take a closer look.

4:20 Dead Obies

4:20 Dead Obies impacts newcomers with a content-intensive opening screen that is fully packed with letters, to be more precise with the word ‘loading’. While the website is loading, each symbol changes to another adding dynamics to a static page and imitating an info board at the airport.

NewsTech

NewsTech has a powerful high-tech vibe that accompanies every page of their website. The designer opts in favor of a data inspired pattern, which, by the way, is one of the modern trends nowadays that gives the overall aesthetics a cutting-edge feel. The waiting animation features the same surroundings.

Ferias Beach Park

Ferias Beach Park tries to convey positive emotions and a cheerful atmosphere inherent to a promoted place. The waiting animation ideally blends in and strengthens the general feeling through a lovely animated mascot.

Mad Max Fury Road

A page with a progress bar on the Mad Max Fury Road website is consistent in terms of design aesthetics. It has brand marks and features that are inherent to the new film of the franchise. There is a bold, massive title and rough graphics that perfectly echo with the general atmosphere.

Panda Raid

Panda Raid slightly improves a standard linear loading bar with the help of a moving illustration of a car. Such a small trick allows killing two birds with one stone: first of all, it enhances the waiting animation, giving it a nice zest, and secondly, it reflects the idea of the project.

Wiser Digital

Wiser Digital features a small ping pong game. Although you cannot take part in it, nor can you control this, yet it has such a warm old-school vibe that it pleases the eye and brightens up seconds of delay.

Tenfold Creative

Tenfold Creative welcomes online visitors with a series of catchy phrases: ‘Getting it done! No problem! Pulling it together!’ and some others. They quickly flash before the eyes, so that the only thing you have time to do is to read them.

Tham Nguyen

Tham Nguyen is a professional female graphic designer from France, whose personal portfolio is a harmonious symbiosis of realistic nature scenes and cartoonish style elements that have a magnificent artistic appeal. The page of a waiting animation with a walking girl fits here like a glove.

50m.space

Much like the previous example, the waiting animation of 50m.space includes an illustration that echoes with the website design and intends to bolster the theme.

Madagence

Unlike the two previous examples, Madagence goes for a more primitive, minimal, geometric-inspired realization. The waiting animation is a series of 4 flat squares placed together that undergo some changes for adding dynamics and unobtrusively telling users that something is going on.

Kajikenseiji

Kajikenseiji charges their loading bar with some subtle motion that does not overwhelm users and looks refined and sleek. While the mascot intends to reflect Japanese motives, a ton of white space provides users with a fresh air.

One Kichjoji

One Kichjoji adopts a very similar approach to the previous example. The opening screen also demonstrates a tiny monochromatic illustration powered by a subtle motion. The animation adds elegance and delicacy to the website aesthetics.

Interatction with Artificial Physics

Interaction with Artificial Physics is a sophisticated project that exhibits some advanced ‘magic’. Nevertheless, the loading animation is not so impressive as might be expected, yet it is also worthy of your attention. It features typography animation and bubble animation that together produce a favorable impression.

Catch the Dragon

Catch the dragon also has a quite simple waiting animation based on a regular circular progress bar that is spiced up with some dynamic touches. However, thanks to the tiny complementary effects, the indicator vibrates and adds a subtle sense of motion to the page that is so eye-pleasing.

SLMF

SLMF is characterized by the utilization of a bold, massive typography that instantly strikes the eye. The waiting animation shows a numeric meter made exactly in such a font. It establishes a brutal and powerful general feeling inherent to the project from the first seconds.

Zodiac

Zodiac has a fantastic and artistic opening page that features an exquisite waiting animation. Every detail has been thoroughly planned and neatly crafted. There is a dramatic background and ornamental loading indicator that fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

MTV Bump

MTV Bump is a unique, one of a kind website that is highly absorbing and original. There is lots of interesting stuff, and a waiting animation, which precedes the appearance of the front page and prepares you for that.

Y7K

Y7K utilizes a simple yet cunning trick that transforms the loading animation into the centerpiece. The developer leverages a regular mask for forcing the huge nameplate of the website to show a vibrant video background. It naturally catches the eye.

The Happy Forecast

Although the coloring of the canvas needs a little refinement since the contrast between background and foreground suffers, demonstration of stages of loading progressing through titles catches the attention and enriches the delay.

Henge Travel

Henge Travel combines a waiting animation and an opening screen that smoothly interact with each other. The developer employs graceful transitions and fancy animation for the rhombus style loading indicator that goes perfectly well with the boxy nature of the website design.

Conclusion

Utilization of a waiting animation is a small trick that greatly contributes to user experience, converting seconds of expectations into an enjoyable pastime. You can slightly change the loading indicator by adding some subtle motion or go for drastic measures and incorporate illustrations or even game-style elements that spice up the project.

Does boring delay play a critical role? Do you think unconventional waiting animation can save the day?

Onextrapixel – Web Design and Development Online Magazine

16 Sep

Waiting Animations – Best Practices and Creative Examples

by TBSCategories: News

Waiting Animations

Since progress bars that aim to indicate loading status of a website are the most popular option, we have listed fresh examples of interesting variants of them. Let’s take a closer look.