It's not about UI Animation

Because the topic of motion in user interfaces is mostly understood by designers to be 'UI Animation'-which it is not - I feel like I need to create a bit of context before we jump into the 12 Principles.

'UI Animation' is typically thought of by designers as something that makes the user experience more delightful, but overall doesn't add much value. Thus, UI Animation is often treated like the red-headed stepchild of UX (apologies to red-headed stepchildren everywhere). If at all, it usually comes at the end, as a final lipstick pass.

Additionally, motion in the context of user interfaces has understandably been held to be under the domain of Disney's 12 Principles of Animation, something I argue against in my article 'UI Animation Principles - Disney is Dead.'

In my manifesto, I will be making the case that UI Animation is to the '12 UX in Motion Principles' as construction is to architecture.

By this I mean, that while a structure needs to be physically built to exist (requiring construction), the guiding hand which determines what gets built comes from the domain of Principles.

Animation is all about tools. Principles are the practical application of ideas that guide the usage of tools and as such, Principles provide high leverage opportunities for designers.

What most designers think of as 'UI Animation' is in fact the execution of a higher modality of design: the temporal behavior of interface objects during realtime and non-realtime events.