Bend, rotate, transform, fade in, fade out: whether in 2D or 3D – motion designers love everything that moves. Not just in your report, also on your corporate websites or social media, on Augmented or Virtual Reality applications or interactive videos.
There are plenty of applications for motion design in digital formats that offer potential for added value in terms of information, attention and entertainment.
Motion design combines elements of traditional graphic design and classical audiovisual design disciplines with modern digital technologies. Motion designers work directly at the interface of photography, design, technology and film. Information can be visualised in a very unique way and provided with added value.
Motion design in report communication
Motion design brings movement into rigid graphic elements: it enlivens them. Especially on social media, still images are increasingly being replaced by moving images and short film sequences. And not without any reason: our eyes react to movement. Our view is literally drawn to it and verifiably stays longer with moving image content. This can be used for report communication. Moving images and content from reports prepared explicitly for social media score and lead to higher engagement of interest groups. By linking to the report, the reach can be measurably increased.
Motion Design in online reports
Motion design also offers far-reaching potential for the landing page of reports. Stage videos or animations can attract the attention of your stakeholders or can be impressively representative of a company’s performance. A smart use of videos or animations within a header draws a lot of attention from the beginning as they are the first thing the visitor sees. Excellently realised in the reports of ProSiebenSat1. and Clariant:
But motion design is not only establishing itself as an attention-catcher on social media or on landing pages. Complex infographics, business models or overview graphics can be presented in an original, structuring and stimulating way through motion design. More complex content can be faded in gradually and thus presented in a linear, clear narrative. This linearity makes them comparable to texts – but the attention and intuitive comprehension of moving images is incomparably higher. They stand out from the deserts of text and they are all readily shared and commented on.
Shell shows in its 2020 Annual Report how isometric motion design combined with interactivity can add value to explain their business model.
Processes can also be visualised more attractively through motion design. Clariant uses an exciting 3D animation in combination with interactive click elements to illustrate their hydrogen process.
Even more engagement
Modern approaches use the captivating potential of motion design in combination with user involvement in decision-making processes. By taking individual control, the users experience changes in a much more personalised way, leading to higher engagement and more precise delivery of content targeted at specific audiences. These approaches can be summarised by the terms “interactive video” and “gamification”.
Gamification
People want to play. Gamification can be used for knowledge transfer or to enrich existing, monotonous processes and complex topics with playful elements, so that a high degree of motivation is created through shared fun. Gamification and thus the creation of positive experiences can also be helpful in report communication. Some content in reports can be prepared in a playful way (e.g. Mailchimp Annual Report 2020) and serves as “snackable content” in an original way.
Outlook: Interactive Video
Wouldn’t it be much more interesting for the viewer to be able to intervene in the virtual “events” and thus arouse his curiosity? In other words, to even let him control the story, or even to display links to further information in the video, so that the viewer switches to content that interests him individually? The solution: Interactive videos turn the passive viewer into an active participant with control over the video’s storyline. Interactive videos make real-time selection possible. The viewers can decide what they are interested in, for example, by selecting the appropriate chapter and thus skipping the part of the video that is of no interest to them. Report magazines are ideally suited for such an interactive content presentation.
It would also be conceivable to cluster a CEO video thematically and allow users to navigate to the topics that are relevant to them.