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JavaScript Animation Libraries and Functions Everyone Should Know

Everyone knows that the difference between a successful e‑commerce website and one that flounders is the impression it makes on the people who see it.

There are more than one billion websites on the world wide web, and chances are you only regularly visit a handful. There are many websites that do the same things as those you visit regularly. Among the commercial sites you visit, price is certainly a deciding factor, but the presentation is also part of the equation.

Supposing you were shopping for zinc vitamin supplements. You perform a search and are presented with a page of results listings.

From those, you look at the first three. The first one you look at seems professional, but the prices are high, so you keep searching. The second has low prices but looks cheap and unprofessional.

The third has higher prices than the second and lower prices than the first but has a slicker look than the second. After some deliberation, you choose to shop with the third site.

Why did you not choose the site with the lowest prices? Because poor web development makes you feel that they lack professionalism. Many online shoppers will choose higher prices if the lower-priced option does not inspire trust. This describes many online shopping experiences every day.

The fact is that a better-looking website that is slick and runs smoothly looks professional. It looks like the proprietor can afford to make their site look better, which makes the user assume they are better at what they do.

We have covered the importance of quality web design many times, but here, we are going to discuss one tool that too few online merchants are using, one that can deliver a lot of performance and a heck of a lot of style for little cost and effort. We are going to talk about JavaScript (JS)and JavaScript animations.

What is JavaScript animation?

JavaScript is a computer programming language that allows you to create interactive websites to engage users.

As you know, animation is a simulation of movement created by presenting a series of images that display the phases of the movement the animator wants to represent.

A set of images of Bugs Bunny displayed quickly make it look as if he is hitting Yosemite Sam over the head with a frying pan, or diving into his rabbit hole. Digital animations or an animation loop in JavaScript is very much like this, except the user sees a different but similar scene every time the screen refreshes, creating the same effect as flipping the panels of a cartoon cell.

According to Linuxhint.com, "JavaScript animations are made by creating incremental changes in programming to the style of an element. These animations can perform tasks that ordinary web development can not do on its own. DOM, or (Document Object Model) and the HTML document is generated by a document object. According to the logical function, you can move multiple DOM elements across the page by using JavaScript."

Put more simply, JavaScript animation is used to design small changes into the element's style. It is an essential tool for any developer or website builder. But most importantly, it helps you get around the limitations of HTML.

In short, JS is a way to introduce motion, action, and animations to develop dynamic content for your website. There are many reasons why you might want to do this.

Adding cool animations on your site is an excellent way to add personality, style, and even functionality to your pages. When done well, these moving images can be entertaining.

They can create your website look and feel more professional, more fun, and more interesting to spend time with. They can even enhance the functionality of your site in ways that create an enjoyable and easy user experience.

Almost any time you see motion on a website, the chances are high that the developer is using JavaScript to generate that motion. Most of the time, these features are simple, but they can be as simple or as complex as you want them to be. The JavaScript animation you use can be subtle, or even utilitarian. But, if you like, they can be over the top, fun, entertaining, or whatever you want them to be.

The human eye loves motion and character, and JS is an excellent way to incorporate those things into your e-commerce pages.

Why is using JavaScript Animations good for your website?

There are many reasons why making gradual changes with JS on your website will make it more attractive to users.

JavaScript adds personality. It breaks up the monotony of a still and static web page and injects a healthy dose of motion, making for a more enjoyable, kinetic, and stylish look into the body as well as the website background.

Benefits of using JavaScript animations on your website

In short, it can make your website more appealing to the people you are trying to reach, both on a desktop or a mobile browser. But that's just a start. There are multiple reasons why JS can not only bring a nice flourish to your web presence, but it can also improve sales in other ways. Here are just a few ways a JavaScript animation can boost your bottom line.

Turn up the volume on your brand personality

If you have studied marketing even a little bit, you know how important branding is to the customer's overall experience.

The purpose of branding is to put a human face on your organization, to make the customer feel as if he or she is interacting with a person, and not only that, but a person who is trustworthy, pleasant, and authoritative.

When they feel they are interacting with such a person each time they interact with your brand, it instills trust. Branding should be consistent so that the customer builds trust for the same character representing your company over time.

Using JavaScript is an excellent way to do this. It can be used to generate the image of your brand mascot, or simply animate the colors and symbols associated with your brand that makes your pages feel alive with the personality that your brand is meant to project.

Direct the attention of your visitors

In general, we want users to move progressively toward the point of purchase. That is the goal of all of our online marketing efforts. But sometimes, we have special events, promotions, new features, new blog posts, and other things we want to promote.

When we have something new, a bit of JavaScript can be a great way to trigger events and direct the attention of our users toward it. The great thing about JS is that it is simple, easy to deploy, and is not particularly demanding on hardware resources.

That means you can cook up a simple animation for a temporary feature and use it to direct the attention of users toward it. Because JavaScript is simple and easy to use, adding, removing, and changing these elements is no problem. Once you or your team get the hang of using it, working with JavaScript for any purpose will be quick and easy.

Offer (and gain) Interaction feedback

If you have ever clicked a button on a website and not seen anything to indicate that something is happening, it can be annoying at best.

If there is a static button that's slow to respond, the only way you know if it's working is if the browser loading icon in the upper left-hand corner starts moving. If it doesn't, you just sit there. You can easily remedy this problem by using a little bit of JavaScript to subtly animate buttons.

With just a few images and a bit of code, you can make clickable items respond when users click them or other mouse events occur. It is reassuring for them, and it makes them less likely to leave your site in the middle of attempted navigation. Even if your site is running slow, it will secure you a little more patience from your users.

What's more, a JavaScript animation can be used to improve the amount of user experience information you can glean from visits to your pages. Using animation can help direct activity toward elements that are designed to record user behavior. This can help you develop assets of this kind that are easy on digital resources, and that work well.

Guide users down the sales funnel

As mentioned, and as you know well, the whole reason you have a website is to give people a way to buy your products or services.

We have already talked about how JavaScript can help guide attention toward new features, posts, or anything you want to direct attention toward. But it can also be used to gently direct your users down the sales funnel, toward the point of purchase.

A massive amount of effort and content has been dedicated to imparting these techniques. How much simpler might it be if a few simple or complex animations added some friendly guidance on how to more rapidly make a purchase on your site?

Sure, it might be easy to go overboard here. But with subtlety and style, you can use JavaScript animation to guide customers through the online shopping experience in a way that feels friendly and helpful.

Build a richer user experience

A website could be starkly simplistic and still offer everything users need to get the products or services they are after. But we use carefully crafted writing, beautiful images, and neatly designed flows to generate an enjoyable experience that inspires confidence and exudes professionalism.

A JavaScript animation is a wonderful tool for enhancing everything we present to our visitors. These resources are very amenable to the creation of friendly-looking, simple, and helpful objects. They can be helpful, entertaining, reassuring, and fun. In the final analysis, users appreciate these things even if they don't realize they appreciate them.

Best of all, JavaScript animations are not resource intensive. They don't crash modern machines, and they are not difficult to make and plugin. It's an easy way to incorporate style and functionality at little to no cost to you.

What are the best functions and javascript animation libraries?

Not only is JavaScript one of the simplest programming languages out there to learn and work with, but there are lots of free resources out there that you can use to enhance your website simply and easily.

There are many JavaScript animation libraries out there for you to choose from, but they are not all created equal. The experts in web design have their favorites, and so will you. The following animation and JS function libraries are easily among the best.

Top JavaScript Animation libraries

There are many JavaScript animation libraries for you to choose from, and you might prefer one of them to our choices. But start with one or more of these as you get the hang of coding in JavaScript. Our developers are sure that after you've shopped around, your favorite will be on the following list.

1. Velocity.js

The Velocity.js library incorporates the best aspects of CSS properties and jQuery transitions for a result that is slick and nice looking. Velocity is used by big names like WhatsApp, GitHub, and more. We even use it here at Mailchimp, and our devs love it. You'll get delaying, hiding and showing, property math, animation loop and much more with Velocity.

2. Anime.js

Anime.js is a lightweight library with over 35 thousand stars on GitHub. Using just one powerful API, Anime lets you use its resources to animate HTML, SVG, JS, CSS, and DOM attributes. It features a built-in staggering system that lets you create fun effects like rippling, overlapping, follow through, directional movement, and much more.

3. Popmotion

Popmotion has earned more than 18 thousand stars on GitHub and is a very useful animation library for any JavaScript-powered environment. It works well with almost any API that takes numbers as an input, such as Three.js, React, A-Frame, or PixiJS. At just 11.7kB, Popmotion is very lightweight and works well even on mobile devices. Even though it is light, it still punches above its weight and is a favorite among many developers.

4. ScrollReveal JS

If you primarily want to animate elements while they move onto the screen, then ScrollReveal JS is the top choice. As the name suggests, it is designed to be optimal for the purpose of animating objects just as they move into the visible UI area. It has more than 18.5-thousand stars on GitHub, making it a bit more popular than the more general-use-oriented Popmotion. Why is an animation library as simple as ScrollReveal so popular? Because animating objects as they move onto the screen is one of the most basic and effective ways developers make websites look a cut above the rest.

5. Three.js

Three.js is one of the most popular animation repositories on the internet. With more than 60 thousand stars on GitHub, the online universe has spoken, and they say Three.js is the bee's knees. It depends on WebGL to make and render animated 3D objects in a browser. Better still, the Three.js team gives you lots of guidance to help you get beyond the initial learning curve. And once you get the hang of it, you can do almost anything.

6. MO.js

If you want to build attractive and compelling geometric shapes that move and change shape, MO.js is the place to go. The APIs look simple, but the results you can get with this animation library simply look amazing. Sure, it's not for everyone, but if geometric shape animations suit your brand, MO.js makes it easy to create great-looking ones for your website.

How to incorporate JavaScript animations into your website

There's no getting around it, using JavaScript will require you to learn to use a little bit of code. The good news is there are lots of free tutorials available on YouTube and elsewhere that can help you to get over the learning curve at little to no cost. For instance, at W3schools.com, you get a simple tutorial that shows you how to create a very basic animation in which a red square moves from the top left of a larger square to the bottom right.

First, you watch the animations. Then you will look at a simple piece of coding made up of just a few lines. It will then ask you to write it out yourself and see how it works. After that, it will show you how to add a few flourishes of style to your JavaScript creation.

When it first emerged, JavaScript was called a "toy" language by professional developers. But today, it is taken seriously as a valuable development tool. That is because people are learning to use it to create simple, stylish, and useful elements for their websites. It has also taken a big chunk out of the web developer's share of the market. So, they learned to respect it, and stopped calling it a toy.

Here at Mailchimp, our web development team is ready to help you get the JavaScript elements of your choice up and running quickly. We know learning to use this programming language might not sound terribly efficient. That's why our proven customer loyalty and marketing development tools are heavily JavaScript integrated to be appealing and generate a quality user experience.

Take a look at our JavaScript for beginners resources to help you get started.

Get in touch today to learn more, start a winning email customer-loyalty program, and boost your bottom line with Mailchimp.

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