Information that moves

Motion graphics are designed information in motion: a statistic that counts up, a process that draws itself, a map that fills in, a title that arrives. The subject is the information and the motion is how it is delivered.

This is a different discipline from animation in the storytelling sense. Nobody is acting. The purpose is to make something understood faster than words alone would manage.

The test is whether the motion helped. If the same information would have been clearer as a still image, the motion was decoration and it cost the viewer attention.

Where it earns its place. Showing change over time, showing a sequence of steps in order, directing attention to the part that matters right now, and connecting one state to another so the viewer follows rather than reorients.

Where it fails. Text that flies in from four directions, effects applied because the software offers them, and a chart that animates for six seconds before it can be read.

Everything you already know about design applies, which is why typography, colour and layout come first in this shelf. A poorly designed graphic that moves beautifully is still a poorly designed graphic.

Design the still frames first. Lay out what the viewer sees at each key moment, get those right, and only then work out how one becomes the next. Most weak motion graphics were animated before they were designed.