You've felt it before. The fun confetti when Duolingo celebrates your learning progress. That pull-to-refresh animation when you check your social media feed. Or the relief when you see "typing..." appear in chat, knowing your question didn't go unanswered.
All these small interactions are micro-interactions, and they're the difference between a product that feels mechanical and one that feels intuitive.
In this guide, we share 20 different micro-interaction examples you can get inspired by. Plus, you'll learn the key principles behind designing great micro-interactions and implementing these patterns effectively in your own product. Let’s get into it.
TL;DR:
2. The best micro-interactions solve specific user problems, such as reducing uncertainty, confirming that actions were successfully completed, or guiding attention to what matters next.
3. Examples span both in-app and website interactions, including progress bars, hover previews, haptic feedback, real-time validation, and celebration animations.
4. Effective micro-interactions follow key principles such as being fast and unobtrusive, using motion with meaning, being accessible by default, and being performance-friendly.
5. Supademo lets you create interactive demos that showcase the micro-interactions without building them first, saving weeks of development time.
What are micro-interactions?
Micro-interactions are the small, often subtle moments that happen when you interact with a product. They're the animations, sounds, and visual feedback that respond to your actions.
These moments might seem minor, but they serve critical functions in user experience. They confirm your actions worked. They guide you to the next step. They prevent errors before you make them. They make the product feel responsive and effective.
Key components of a micro-interaction
Good micro-interactions rarely happen by accident. Behind each one is a simple structure that repeats across products. In his book Microinteractions, Dan Saffer breaks this structure into four parts that you can use as a checklist when you design your own.
Every effective micro-interaction includes these four essential components:
1. Trigger
The trigger initiates the micro-interaction. Triggers can be user-initiated (clicking a button, hovering over an element, swiping a card) or system-initiated (receiving a notification, completing a background process, detecting an error).
For example, when you click "like" on a post, that click triggers the animation. User-initiated triggers give people control and agency. System-initiated triggers keep people informed about what's happening behind the scenes.
2. Rules
Rules determine what happens after the trigger fires. They define the logic and sequence of the interaction. What should appear, how it should move, how long it should last, what conditions must be met. These rules are invisible to users but critical to the interaction's behavior.
For instance, the rule might specify: "when liked, scale the heart icon to 120%, change color to red, add particle effects, then return to 100% over 0.3 seconds." Rules also handle edge cases, such as what happens when someone clicks rapidly or when the network is slow.
3. Feedback
Feedback is what users actually see, hear, or feel. This is the visual animation, sound effect, haptic vibration, or any sensory response that communicates what just happened.
Feedback answers the user's unspoken question: "Did that work?" Good feedback is immediate, clear, and proportional to the action.
The intensity of feedback should match the importance of the action. So, a successful payment might deserve confetti and a success sound. However, marking an email as read might only need a subtle color change.
4. Loops and modes
Loops determine what happens when the interaction repeats, and modes define different states or variations of the interaction.
For instance, a loading spinner loops continuously until the process completes (that's the loop), and it might have different modes for different loading states (uploading versus processing versus finalizing).
20 real-world micro-interaction examples in 2026
The best way to learn about micro-interactions is to see them in action. Let’s find out how different micro-interactions work and how they enhance the user experience.
1. Checklist progress bar
Progress bars in checklists appear in onboarding flows, profile setup pages, and project dashboards across SaaS products. For instance, Asana displays percentage completion on project boards as team members check off tasks, giving everyone instant visibility without opening individual items.
The pattern taps into our natural desire for completion. When you see "3 of 5 tasks done," you're motivated to finish rather than abandon halfway. Progress bars transform overwhelming checklists into achievable challenges with clear endpoints.
2. Empty state nudges
Empty states appear when lists, boards, or inboxes have no content yet. Trello's empty board displays "Add a list" with visual placeholder cards, making it immediately clear how to structure your work.
They prevent the "now what?" moment that causes new users to bounce. Good empty states combine friendly visuals with clear guidance that shows you what to do next and why.
3. Welcome tours
Welcome tours highlight a few core actions on first login. Canva, for example, guides new users through creating their first design with simple step-by-step prompts so they are not staring at a blank editor.
Instead of fragile tooltip tours that break whenever your UI changes, you can use interactive welcome tours that sit outside your code. Tools like Supademo let you record a high-fidelity version of your product, turn it into a clickable demo, and embed it directly into onboarding without any engineering work.
4. Contextual help launcher
Contextual help launchers are floating widgets, usually positioned in the bottom-right corner, that provide on-demand access to help resources.
At Supademo, we use interactive Demo Hubs across our own website, app, and help docs. For example, on the Supademo homepage, you can open the hub by clicking the “S” widget in the bottom-right corner to browse demos by feature, workflow, or use case.
You can create the same experience for your product by recording key flows once, organizing them into a hub, and embedding a single snippet in your app, site, or knowledge base.
When your UI changes, you update the demos in Supademo and the hub updates automatically. Users get answers in the moment, without leaving their current screen.
5. Confetti on the first milestone
Celebration animations appear when you complete meaningful milestones. Duolingo triggers animated confetti and encouraging messages when you complete a lesson, creating powerful positive reinforcement.
These micro-celebrations create emotional connections beyond functional confirmation. They make you feel good about your progress, which drives continued engagement and habit formation. The key is reserving these animations for truly meaningful moments. Overuse dilutes their impact and trains you to ignore them.
6. Password strength meter
Password strength meters appear inline as you type new passwords. Dropbox shows a color-coded bar with specific feedback like "Add a number" that helps you improve your password in real-time.
Real-time guidance removes guesswork and frustration. When you see the bar progress toward "Strong," you're motivated to add another character rather than giving up on the form.
7. New feature beacons and tooltips
Feature beacons are small animated dots or "New" labels that draw attention to recently launched features. For example, Slack highlights new features with small badges on sidebar items, with tooltips that explain what's new when you hover.
Beacons create visual contrast that announces new capabilities without being as intrusive as blocking modals. The key is making them dismissible. After you interact with the feature, the beacon should disappear.
8. Hover previews in menus
Hover preview cards appear when you mouse over links in navigation. For instance, Wikipedia shows preview popups with article introductions and main images when you hover over any link, letting you get information without leaving your current page.
This pattern reduces the cost of exploration and encourages engagement. You can quickly scan multiple options without committing to full-page loads or back-button frustration.
9. Preloader with progress hint
Preloaders with progress hints show actual percentages or estimated time remaining. For example, YouTube displays "Uploading... 45%" with estimated time and lets you navigate away while the upload continues in the background.
Uncertainty is more frustrating than waiting itself. Progress hints set accurate expectations and reduce perceived wait time, turning waiting into informative time.
10. Pull to refresh tension effect
Pull to refresh adds physicality to content updates on mobile devices. For instance, Instagram shows a gradient loading indicator that stretches as you pull down your feed, with smooth physics that make the interaction feel natural.
The pattern makes content refreshing feel tactile and under your control. The physics-based animation mimics real-world pulling actions, making digital interactions feel less abstract.
11. Typing indicator in chat
Typing indicators show animated dots or text like "User is typing..." when someone is composing a message. For example, WhatsApp displays three dots that fade and pulse, creating anticipation for the incoming message.
This indicator solves a major communication problem: the uncertainty of waiting for a response. It confirms someone is actively composing a reply, which reduces anxiety and prevents you from sending follow-up messages out of impatience.
12. Copy to clipboard with toast
Copy to clipboard interactions show immediate confirmation when text or links are copied. For instance, GitHub displays "Copied!" in a small toast notification near the copy button that slides in and fades out smoothly.
The feedback is critical because clipboard actions are invisible. Toast notifications remove doubt and save time by confirming the copy worked without requiring you to test it.
13. Reaction burst on like
Like and reaction animations add momentary delight to social actions. For example, LinkedIn's thumbs-up icon scales and changes color smoothly when clicked, with particle effects on mobile devices.
These micro-interactions make social actions feel rewarding, which encourages continued engagement. The brief animation creates a micro-moment of satisfaction that keeps you tapping and interacting with posts.
14. Inline link preview card
Inline link previews automatically expand shared links into rich cards. For instance, Slack transforms pasted URLs into preview cards with site favicons, images, and descriptions pulled from page metadata.
The previews help you decide if you want to click through without committing to a full page load. You see the article title and description right in the conversation, making it clear what's being shared.
15. Error banner
Error banners appear at the top of screens or inline with forms to alert you about problems. For example, Airbnb displays orange banners when booking dates conflict, with specific error text explaining the issue and a clear "please try again" call to action.
Good error banners provide specific, helpful information like "Your session expired. Please log in again." Unlike toast notifications that disappear automatically, error banners should persist until the problem is resolved.
16. Haptic nudge
Haptic feedback adds physical vibrations to confirm actions on mobile devices. For instance, Apple Pay delivers a distinct haptic tap when you authenticate a payment with Face ID, confirming the transaction succeeded.
Touch screens lack the physical feedback of buttons and keyboards. Haptic feedback restores that tactile confirmation, making interactions feel more certain and satisfying.
17. Real-time field validation
Real-time validation checks form inputs as you type, showing immediate feedback with checkmarks or error icons. For example, X validates username availability instantly with a green checkmark for available names or a red cross for taken ones.
Real-time validation catches mistakes early when they're easy to fix. The key is striking a balance. Validation should wait until you've finished typing in a field before showing errors.
18. Back to top fade-in
Back to top buttons appear after scrolling down a page, fading in at the bottom-right corner. For instance, many blogs display a circular arrow button that fades in smoothly as you scroll.
Long pages create navigation fatigue. Back to top buttons solve this with one click, and the smooth scroll back provides orientation instead of disorienting jumps.
19. Voice-to-text transcription indicator
Voice input interfaces show animated waveforms or pulsing microphone icons to confirm the system is listening. For example, WhatsApp displays an animated waveform that responds to your voice volume while recording, with a live counter showing recording duration.
Voice interfaces are invisible by nature, which creates uncertainty. The animated waveform is effective because it responds to voice volume, creating a feedback loop that confirms the system is hearing you.
20. Contextual tooltips
Contextual tooltips appear on hover or tap to provide helpful information about interface elements. For instance, Gmail displays tooltips explaining archive, delete, and snooze actions on hover, making icon-only buttons clear without taking up permanent space.
Tooltips solve the challenge of serving both new and experienced users. They reveal help on demand, so new users can hover to learn more, while experienced users never see explanations they don't need.
Principles to design effective micro-interactions
“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible.”
― Donald A. Norman
Here are some essential principles to follow while working on your micro interaction design and development:
- Purposeful and contextual: Every micro interaction should solve a specific user problem, like confirming an action, providing guidance, or preventing errors, not just look decorative.
- Fast and unobtrusive: Keep animations fast so interfaces feel instant and responsive without interrupting user flow or demanding unnecessary attention.
- Motion with meaning: Ensure every animation communicates something useful, like a button scaling up to show a press registered or a card sliding to indicate forward progress.
- Accessible by default: Design for all users by providing text alternatives for visual feedback, ensuring color isn't the only state indicator, and respecting reduced motion preferences.
- Performance-friendly: Test on lower-end devices and use GPU-accelerated properties like CSS transforms and opacity instead of layout changes that cause lag or stutter.
- Consistent with brand and system: Align interactions with your brand personality and respect platform conventions so animations feel cohesive.
Bring micro-interactions to life with Supademo
By now, you know what good micro-interactions do. They reduce hesitation, confirm user actions, and provide contextual help without breaking the flow.
Use the examples above as starting points and add them only where they earn their keep. A haptic nudge can confirm a processed payment. A hotspot can explain a risky action before someone clicks. Inline validation can fix a broken email or promo code before it becomes a support ticket.
Once these foundations are in place, you can extend the same thinking into onboarding and help. This is where Supademo fits.
You can turn key flows into interactive demos and group them in Demo Hubs behind a small launcher in your app, website, or docs. Users stay on the same screen, click “Show me,” and walk through a guided version of the workflow without touching live data.
If you are shaping micro-interactions for onboarding or support journeys, Supademo’s Demo Hubs give you a practical way to make those moments interactive and easy to find.
Try Supademo and create your first interactive micro-interaction!
FAQs
What makes a good micro-interaction?
A good micro-interaction is purposeful, fast, and provides clear feedback. It should solve a specific user problem, like confirming an action worked or guiding to the next step. The best ones are subtle enough that users barely notice them consciously, but would definitely miss them if they were gone.
How do micro-interactions improve user experience?
Micro-interactions reduce friction by providing immediate feedback, preventing errors, and guiding users through complex tasks. They build confidence by confirming actions worked as expected. They also add delight through small moments of polish that make products feel more responsive and thoughtfully designed.
What's the difference between micro-interactions and animations?
Micro-interactions are functional moments that respond to user actions or system events, like a button changing color when clicked or a progress bar filling up. Animations are the visual technique used to create those moments.
How do I choose which micro-interactions to implement first?
Start by identifying your biggest user friction points. Where do users get confused, make errors, or abandon tasks? Look at support tickets and user feedback for clues. Then implement micro-interactions that directly address those problems.
How can I test if my micro-interactions are effective?
Use analytics to track completion rates, time-on-task, and error rates before and after implementing micro-interactions. Run A/B tests comparing versions with and without specific interactions. The best validation is when users don't consciously notice the micro-interaction but complete tasks faster and with fewer errors.
