In 2020, dynamic websites have become the standard for engaging website design. As humans, our eyes are drawn to movement, and we engage immediately to understand what the signal means. While they may seem like a novelty, website animations keep people on your pages for longer.
Lottie animations are the new trending graphics to include within your web design and are now available with Elementor Pro. These gorgeous animations can be deployed anywhere on your site, adding movement and character to both pages and posts.
Most designers avoid using anything but the subtlest animation, as they can compromise your load speeds. The main benefit of Lottie animations is that they are lightweight and easy to create. Lottie files are our top choice of animated detail for creating engaging websites.
Lottie animations are lightweight animated graphics. Using a JSON file type, they compress animations whilst retaining robust visual features. This balance is near impossible to replicate with older motion-graphics formats.
More than just a gimmick, adding movement to websites makes pages more intuitive. Users can create and test their own Lottie files for free, so you can find Lotties to illustrate any kind of information. These animations can even be used in ebooks and infographics.
Lottie Animations are similar to Raster Animations. These are made using a sequence pixelated frames, rather than moving components such as nodes or vectors. The three significant differentiators between Rasters and Lottie animations include payload, picture quality and colour accuracy. Because of Raster’s pixelation, a Lottie animation retains its picture quality far better, no matter what size you make it.
Rasters are often rendered as GIF files or APNG files. GIFs are by far the most well-known animated image file. They are almost ubiquitous across social media as a great format for memes. APNGs are more able to handle colour than GIFs, having 24-bit colour to GIF’s 8-bit.
Designers at Lottie compared the file sizes of three animations. Each was 120 frames long. They compared a Raster GIF, a Raster APNG and a Lottie. They found that the GIF was 142.0KB, the APNG was 11.0KB, but a Lottie had a file size of 1.2KB.
Using lots of large files on a blog or web page slows it down. Why wouldn’t you choose an animation type which is ~118 times smaller than a GIF?
Supporting dynamic web content, Lotties are visible when used in mobile apps across the majority of phones and tablets. As JSON files, Lottie Animations support modern Javascript, so can operate on any browser.
With a free account, designers can download animations in seconds, in whatever file format suits them. In the Marketplace, website animations are available on a pay-per-download basis, so there is no need to commit to monthly subscriptions. You can also download Packs, which include sets of matching animations on a theme. This can help with iconography or keeping to a theme in your website design.
In Lottie’s Community pages, designers can upload and share their own website animation creations. These are free to download, increasing the profile of the animator and giving designers access to high-quality animations and a collaborative community.
Because they are written in plain text code and formatted as JSON files, Lotties are readily available for integrating into almost any application and website. Due to their simplistic formatting and coding, Lottie Animations do not rely on clunky hardware or software to be edited or embedded. Meaning designers can create and upload anytime, anywhere.
Just like a video or a GIF, Lottie Animations are exciting snippets of content which grab the viewer’s attention and encourage them to stay on your website longer. More than an aesthetic novelty, Lotties are often used to display key information, for example, highlighting data sets for statistical applications and data science.
Data storage and retrieval are prime concerns for many modern businesses. With an increasing amount of business processes quickly becoming digitised, a fast loading and responsive website will enable you to always come out on top. Helping you to battle the competition, Lottie files can be used in large-scale solutions to reduce the costs of storing modern graphics content. Furthermore, due to their simple code and format, they can be updated whenever and wherever you need.
Lightweight does not equate to lower expectations. Lottie Animations are often of a higher quality than more traditional media. The devil is in the detail, as Lottie animations retain the integrity of complex content without being compromised by larger file sizes. Good things come in small Lottie Animations packages.
Compared to other forms of animation, Lotties are a brilliant source of cheap and engaging content which can be easily accessed across multiple digital devices.
They are also easy to make in-house without the need for expensive professional software and tools. Lottie animations are brilliant for small website design agencies looking to really impress their clients, without needing to drastically hike-up their project budget costs.
Website designers are raving about how easily Lottie Animations manage to breathe life into brands online, that would otherwise remain unspoken. Because Lotties are so lightweight, they allow apps to use animations as easily as they use static images. It is no surprise then, that Lotties Animations are quickly growing in popularity for many other content formats.
Ebooks are a popular source of informative online content. Often PDFs, they are shortened informative formats of content. Ebooks can be used to explain complex ideas, or even to shorten well-known stories, Ebooks contain perfect content to pair with animations, which can be viewed on a diverse range of mobile devices.
Succinct snippets of either an article or a clear visual representation of key market research statistics. Infographics make dense information more appealing and easily accessible to the reader. Traditionally using static images, web designers are now experimenting with adding Lottie Animations into their infographic designs to make their content unique, and to engage a wider audience across social media platforms.
Typically sent out to your target demographic, newsletters are issued to subscribers via online campaign software. They can contain news updates and business information or even special offers. These usually include links to your website and any suitable static images. Web designers are now looking to incorporate Lottie Animations into these content pieces to increase readers’ engagement.
So far, so good. It seems that Lottie Animations are a tried and tested quick fix for updating boring static marketing material. Digital content is evolving, and Lottie Animations are fast becoming an accessible and affordable way to increase viewer interest and encourage longer engagements on websites.
One small issue which may be perceived as a setback for Lottie Animations is that their formatting and code (JSON and plain text), relies very heavily on Javascript to function. Some may see this as a limitation to using Lotties, depending on the devices and software which they own or can access.
Luckily, Javascript is widely used by designers, and Lottie Animations support modern Javascript. This means Lottie Animations content is compatible with any browser, as well as being supported by a wide variety of mobile devices.
Overall, Lottie Animations can help bring your brand to life by creating user-friendly interactive interfaces for websites, and animating your otherwise static content.
Birmingham-based professional website designers KIJO are experts in creating innovative digital content to engage your online audience. They understand how important it is to keep your marketing content fresh and enticing for your consumers. Experienced designers, familiar with cutting-edge technology and evolving technology trends, KIJO can create perfect Lottie Animations to complement your dynamic marketing campaigns.
Lottie Animations have rapidly grown in popularity, and as the saying goes, if you can’t beat them, join them. If you are a web designer or otherwise, you may benefit from researching LottieFiles plugins. This will allow you to test out the very newest content creation tools. You will also be able to edit your animations in the Lottie editor.
If you are not yet convinced that Lottie Animations are for you, but do decide to experiment with them, you can be certain that your website load speeds will not be compromised. This is a great selling point if you are designing a website for a client who wishes to incorporate Lottie Animations into their marketing campaign, without losing page visitors.
Lottie Animations are creative, and the design process is user friendly and intuitive. Having adopted familiar application development methods, there is not a lot stopping you from getting started with your animation designs right away.
Thinking of designing your own animations, or simply want to know how to best incorporate these into your own website? You can contact KIJO with any questions. We create websites and apps that work for your business, allowing you to focus on what you do best! For more information on our services, simply contact us today.
