Every animal has a primary sense that it relies on more than its other senses. You can usually tell what an animal’s main sensory reliance is based on how large that main sensory organ is on their body. Take a look at a cat’s skull and how much of it is taken up by the eye sockets. Look at a dog’s snout; a bat’s ears. An animal’s core sense is built up in order to give it the best possible chance of survival. Humans are visual animals, and we rely most heavily on our sense of sight to survive.

Motion is a heightened portion of our sense of sight. This is mostly because as we evolved as a species, the introduction of movement in our environment meant either danger or food. On an instinctual level, noticing movement in our immediate environment was our best defense in surviving that danger or catching our meal. For that reason alone motion takes priority in the animal portion of our brains, the part that processes changes in our environment before we even consciously process the information. A small amount of movement off in the distance or in our peripheral vision will always draw our attention immediately because, to our brains, it matters more.

As humans we rely on our sight to acquire information about our environments and then we respond either physically or emotionally. As visual designers we make choices about color, form, size, and placement with the intention of invoking emotional responses in our audiences. These decisions are the ones we make every day as interface designers in order to build visual hierarchy, communicate focus, and call out actionable items. But the choices we make around motion can evoke an even more visceral reaction in viewers because of the great importance our brains assign to motion in our environment.

As designers we should embrace motion as a vital practice to better communicate our ideas. Motion is just as much a visual communication tool as any other element of graphic design. As our devices and projects become more interactive, dynamic and touchable there will be more and more opportunity for us to infuse motion as a design practice. How dangerous, inviting, bouncy, elastic, fast, or slow you choose to make your motion will always be up to you, but having the right vocabulary to describe it and a rationale behind your choices will win the prize.

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