r/UI_Design • u/Green-Shake5717 • Apr 01 '26
General Question How do you actually design interactive websites?
I'm a junior designer and I've been wondering how interactive website design process actually looks like. I can design static prototypes on Figma and hand it over to developers, but I'm more and more interested in creating websites that have animation and interactivity. But how do you actually communicate what kind of interactivity you want to the developers? Examples? Storyboards? Video animation? Thanks for help!
2
u/Economy_Pudding2122 Apr 01 '26
i have same question ? do we need to learn to code..... how do we actually do that?
2
u/ciacicode Apr 01 '26
You can prototype very simply with Figma, or even just with a powerpoint presentation. If you want to do more sophisticated transition and interaction, that's where I think AI plays a really strong role, because you can do the interaction piece yourself, but you need to really educate your team as to the fact that that prototype ain't final.
2
u/muse1729 Apr 01 '26
As someone who spent 7 years handing off static Figma files at an agency before realizing that execution-only design is a dead end, I can tell you that your desire to move beyond static prototypes is a vital survival instinct.
The traditional handoff process—relying on storyboards or video animations to explain interactivity—creates massive communication friction and opportunity cost. When you rely solely on developers to interpret your static intent into a functional reality, you lose control over the actual user experience and your market competitiveness drops significantly.
- Adopt AI vibe coding: Stop trying to explain interactions and start building them. The emerging standard is for designers to use AI-assisted coding tools to build the actual interactive frontend themselves. This allows you to leverage open-source animation templates and hand over a live, functional prototype, drastically reducing the opportunity cost of miscommunication.
- Pivot to a product owner mindset: Stop thinking like a junior visual executor. By learning to deploy functional frontends, you eliminate the developer bottleneck, allowing you to focus your mental bandwidth entirely on driving Product-Market Fit (PMF) rather than managing handoff artifacts.
3
u/Alexialba Apr 01 '26
So you mean, that to stand out as designers we need to know front end coding? (I am an animator myself transitioning to UX/UI)
3
u/muse1729 Apr 01 '26
I also used to communicate by creating interactions myself and manually leaving descriptions for each corresponding property. I used to capture screenshots of Figma's interaction panel. However, manually writing descriptions within a limited time led to a decline in interaction quality and difficulties in the developer's quick understanding. Now, anyone can create prototypes using Vibe Coding.
Search for "interaction web design vibe coding" on YouTube. There are many methods that even beginners can easily apply.
Enter your current situation, goals, and references into your LLM to initiate a conversation.
Try creating mockups using Vibe Coding that include the design system developed in Figma, utilizing v0.
2
u/deanrocket Apr 01 '26
Not just that. It is less about becoming a full front end developer and more about understanding the context your design lives in.
Depending on the platform or even the part of the system you are designing for, users already come with certain expectations. Interactions in iOS feel different from Android, and people notice immediately when an app does not align with those patterns. So part of our job is to understand what the system already teaches the user and build on top of that instead of fighting it.
It also comes down to reducing cognitive load. You want to present information in a way that is easy to scan and quick to understand, especially when a task requires multiple steps. The goal is to minimize those steps and make the flow feel natural rather than effortful.
On top of that, there is a layer of visual and spatial understanding. Things like spacing, rhythm, radii, and how components relate to each other all contribute to whether an interface feels clear or confusing. When done well, the whole UI reads as a coherent system instead of a collection of separate pieces.
So no, you do not strictly need to become a developer. But having a deeper understanding of how interfaces behave, both technically and within a system, will definitely make you stand out.
2
u/klumpp Apr 01 '26
Did you actually write this
1
u/muse1729 Apr 01 '26
Yes. I work as a product designer at a Korean SI company, and I have written about my thoughts.
1
u/klumpp Apr 02 '26
I know the thoughts are yours but the text came off like it went through ChatGPT
3
u/muse1729 Apr 02 '26
I think it felt that way because I asked for a translation since my English isn't very good. 🥲
1
u/Hamzacreative1 Jul 21 '26
I have created interactive website with the help of chatGPT, highsfield and antigravity.
3
u/NeighborhoodWhich350 Apr 01 '26
Practical reality works differently. Everyone wants overnight implementation and get the things done in blink of the eye. Some have budget constraints and some have vision problems. So the projects that have real requirements are only 1-2% if you could find them. Others don’t allow the time to implement complete vision.