Improve Your Apps and Websites With Animated Icons

Icons are an essential building tool for apps, websites and information design projects. They help visualize information on user interfaces and inspire a visual flow. But what is better than a regular icon? An animated icon!

If you’re a UI designer and have been using Flaticon for static icons, now you also have access to animated icons. We’ve added more than 400 icons with micro animations to improve the delight factor on your apps, websites and interactive infographics.

Are you ready to get started with animated icons? You’ve come to the right place.

The Micro Animation Craze

Designers and developers have been using icons and animations since the beginning of the World Wide Web. In the 1980s, animations and design came together to give way to the GIF. The first GIF was a looping animated icon of an airplane flying. The animated element were the clouds in the background, simulating movement.

This first GIF changed the way we see the web; it became alive and interactive. Suppose you’re old enough to remember the blinking, colorful GIF icons of AltaVista and MySpace. In that case, you’ll be happy to know that animated icons nowadays are much more refined and better suited for a positive user experience.

Micro animations have just the right levels of visual activity not to take away from the overall experience but instead contribute to the delight factor in your UI and digital designs. 

When Should You Use Animated Icons?

Let’s define the “delight factor.” The term comes from the marketing term for “customer delight.” It’s that extra little thing that makes a customer smile and react in an emotionally positive way. Some people call it the “wow factor” or whatever makes something “pop.” When your digital design has a delight factor, the user will enjoy the experience more.

Animated icons are great for any type of digital design destined for all sorts of devices. Add animated icons on websites, desktop and mobile apps, watch apps and interactive designs like museum exhibits or restaurant menus.

Even though animated icons improve the delight factor of your projects, you still have to make sure you’re not misusing or overusing them. There’s nothing worse than a design element that distracts or inspires adverse emotional reactions. 

Use animated icons instead of regular icons for their essential purpose: to help the user understand what they’re seeing. They help with the skimmability of a site and overall flow. An animated icon enhances the experience just a bit more, enough to make a difference.

The trick is to know when it’s too much or just right. The best way to know is to do some user testing. Ask team members, friends, or real users to look at your overall design and let you know how the animated icons affect their usability and emotional reaction.

When To Use Which Type Of File

Creating an app, website or digital product these days is easier than ever. The scope of no-code tools and builders has paved the way for anyone to build a digital product in no time. Here at Flaticon, we want to give access to our icons to every type of creator; that’s why our animated icons are available in several formats.

Animated icons aren’t editable inside the Flaticon app, but it’s easy to change colors to match your overall design depending on how you download it.

GIF and MP4

GIF and MP4 are ready-to-use formats with no editing required. Download your animated icons as GIF or MP4 and use them straight away.

SVG, EPS and PSD

Vector formats are great for easy editing with your design software. Download as SVG, EPS or PSD and edit the colors and shape any way you want. Use your edited SVG to upload to apps and websites; they have the smallest file size and are the best for UI/UX and responsive design.

After Effects and JSON

You can also download your animated icons as AEP for Adobe After Effects or JSON with Lottie for adding to websites and apps. AEP is a motion graphics file format for Adobe After Effects to add animated icons in videos easily. JSON files are for developers who want a file easily inserted into an HTML code or CSS style sheet.

Enhance Your Digital Products With Flaticon

Give your digital projects that little extra to make them stand out from the rest of the competition. How many types of digital products could use an animated icon? Let’s see:

• Desktop, mobile and watch apps
• Websites and landing pages
• Interactive and animated infographics
• Interactive and animated presentations
• Short social media videos
• Video ads

Upload your animated icon into any tool you use for creating and designing digital products. With all the options available, nothing’s stopping you!