Motion guidelines describe what motion should feel like. Motion budgets describe how much of it a product can afford. We have come to prefer the second.
For Atlas Mobility we capped the product at six transitions. Each one had a name, an easing, a duration, and a job. If a seventh appeared, we cut one of the six.
A transit app is read at a walking pace. Every screen has to survive a glance that lasts less than a second.
What a budget buys you
- A finite list of transitions a team can learn in an afternoon.
- A reason to say no to motion that is only decoration.
- A document the build team can implement without guessing.
The budget is the guideline. The list is the system.