home / skills / dylantarre / animation-principles / social-media

social-media skill

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This skill applies Disney's animation principles to social media interfaces to create engaging, expressive interactions that boost sharing and user retention.

npx playbooks add skill dylantarre/animation-principles --skill social-media

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

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SKILL.md

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---
name: social-media
description: Use when designing animations for social platforms, messaging apps, content sharing, or community features
---

# Social Media Animation Principles

Apply Disney's 12 principles to create engaging, expressive experiences that encourage interaction and emotional connection.

## The 12 Principles Applied

### 1. Squash & Stretch
- **Like Buttons**: Heart squishes on tap, then bounces back
- **Reaction Emojis**: Playful stretch during selection
- **Send Button**: Compress before message flies away

### 2. Anticipation
- **Post Button**: Brief wind-up before publishing
- **Stories**: Tap-and-hold with radial progress
- **Swipe Actions**: Preview hints at what's coming

### 3. Staging
- **Content First**: User content is always the star
- **Reactions Bar**: Clear but not overshadowing
- **Notifications**: Prominent but dismissible

### 4. Straight Ahead & Pose to Pose
- **Feed Scroll**: Endless smooth flow (straight ahead)
- **Posting Flow**: Step-by-step creation (pose to pose)
- **Story Sequences**: Frame-by-frame progression

### 5. Follow Through & Overlapping Action
- **Like Animation**: Icon bounces, count updates after
- **Comment Thread**: Avatar appears, then text
- **Share Menu**: Options cascade in sequence

### 6. Slow In & Slow Out
- **Pull to Refresh**: Smooth deceleration
- **Card Transitions**: Ease-in-out for polished feel
- **Modal Sheets**: Comfortable 300ms timing

### 7. Arc
- **Reactions Float**: Emojis arc upward from button
- **Story Gestures**: Swipe follows natural curve
- **Content Sharing**: Posts arc to share destination

### 8. Secondary Action
- **Double-Tap Like**: Heart bursts while fading
- **Typing Indicator**: Dots bounce while thinking
- **Upload Progress**: Shimmer while processing

### 9. Timing
- **Interactions**: Snappy 100-200ms for engagement
- **Transitions**: Swift 250-300ms to maintain flow
- **Celebrations**: 500-800ms for emotional moments

### 10. Exaggeration
- **Reactions**: Amplify emotional expression
- **Milestones**: Celebrate follower counts, likes
- **Live Features**: Dynamic, attention-grabbing

### 11. Solid Drawing
- **Avatar Consistency**: Uniform sizing and styling
- **Icon Language**: Cohesive visual vocabulary
- **Grid Layouts**: Proper alignment and spacing

### 12. Appeal
- **Personality Forward**: Platform character shines through
- **Dopamine Design**: Rewarding micro-interactions
- **Shareability**: Animations worth recording

## Industry Timing Standards

| Action | Duration | Easing |
|--------|----------|--------|
| Like/React | 200ms | spring |
| Pull to Refresh | 300ms | ease-out |
| Story Transition | 250ms | ease-in-out |
| Modal Open | 300ms | ease-out |
| Send Message | 150ms | ease-out |

## Key Principle
Social media thrives on emotional expression. Animations should amplify connection, make interactions feel rewarding, and encourage continued engagement without feeling manipulative.

Overview

This skill applies Disney's 12 principles of animation to social platforms, messaging apps, and content-sharing features to create expressive, engaging micro-interactions. It turns UI moments—likes, sends, stories, and transitions—into emotionally resonant, rewarding experiences without disrupting usability. Use it to guide timing, motion, and visual language so interactions feel natural and shareable.

How this skill works

The skill maps each animation principle to common social UI patterns and provides practical timings, easings, and examples developers and designers can implement. It inspects interaction points (buttons, gestures, feeds, modals) and prescribes motion behavior—e.g., squash & stretch for taps, arcs for shared content, and slow in/slow out for transitions. The output is a concise set of animation rules and durations that balance delight with performance and accessibility.

When to use it

Designing like/reaction animations for posts and messages
Crafting story and story-transition gestures
Building sending, sharing, and upload flows
Polishing modal, card, and pull-to-refresh transitions
Creating celebratory moments (milestones, achievements)

Best practices

Keep content and user intent visually dominant—animations should support, not overshadow
Favor snappy interactions for core actions (100–200ms) and longer timings for celebrations (500–800ms)
Use easing consistently: spring for playful taps, ease-in-out for scene transitions, ease-out for refresh/send actions
Combine principles: add follow-through to squash & stretch, or secondary actions to emphasize intent
Test animations on real devices and with reduced-motion settings to respect accessibility

Example use cases

Heart or reaction animations that squash, stretch, and bounce on tap with a 200ms spring for immediate feedback
Send button that compresses on press, then arcs the message to the conversation with a 150ms ease-out
Story swipe that follows an arc and uses slow in/slow out for a polished, natural feel
Pull-to-refresh with a 300ms ease-out deceleration and an overlapping secondary shimmer during loading
Share flow where the post visually arcs toward the destination and menu options cascade with overlapping timing

FAQ

How do I balance delight and performance?

Prioritize short durations for frequent actions, reuse lightweight transforms (opacity/translate/scale), and avoid expensive layouts. Test on low-end devices and provide an option to reduce motion.

What timing should I use for core actions vs celebrations?

Core interactions: 100–250ms; transitions/modals: ~300ms; celebratory animations: 500–800ms for emotional impact.