Micro-Interactions

Micro-interactions are the small, purposeful animations that make an interface feel alive — a button that pulses on hover, a card that tilts slightly when dragged, a notification badge that bounces when a new message arrives. They are invisible when done right and jarring when done wrong. AI does not generate micro-interactions directly, but it is transforming how designers conceive, prototype, and communicate them.

The traditional micro-interaction workflow is: imagine an animation, describe it in words, hope the developer interprets your description correctly, review the implementation, iterate. The AI-assisted workflow adds a visualization step: generate a short video clip showing the interaction concept, use that clip as a motion specification for development. "The card lifts 4px on hover with a 0.2s ease-out and drops a soft shadow" paired with a 2-second AI-generated video of that exact motion removes every ambiguity from the design-to-development handoff.

1. Identify the Interaction Moment Every micro-interaction has a trigger (hover, click, scroll, load) and a response (move, fade, scale, color shift). Define both explicitly before you start generating. "On hover, the card elevates and its shadow deepens" is a complete micro-interaction specification.
2. Generate the Motion Reference Use image-to-video to show the before and after states with a smooth transition between them. Generate a 2-second clip: frame 1 is the resting state, the animation plays, frame 60 is the active state. This clip becomes your motion specification.
3. Define the Timing Curve Pair your motion reference with explicit timing values: duration (usually 150-300ms for micro-interactions), easing function (ease-out for entrances, ease-in for exits), and delay (if part of a sequence). The visual shows what happens. The timing values tell the developer how it happens.