The Psychology of Transitions in iOS

I guess I’m lucky that I don’t get disoriented by the iOS7 zooming transitions. I had no physiological response but I did have a psychological one. I just don’t like the aesthetics of the zooming effect, so I switched on the “Reduce Motion” option (Settings » Accessibility).

For the uninitiated, the reduced motion mode removes parallax and replaces the zooming effect with a fade-in on launch and a fade-out on close. There’s very little difference in the amount of time needed between the default zoom and optional fade transitions.1 However, I immediately noticed a difference in the way I perceived the state of the apps on iOS7.

In Reduced Motion mode, it just feels like everything happens faster. It feels less like I am launching an app and more like I am switching to an already running app. The zoom artifice provides a subtle queue to me that something is starting from nothing. I’m sure this is a learned interpretation, but it doesn’t change the consequence. Fade transitions make using iOS7 feel more modern to me.

  1. If I cared more about the accuracy of this claim, I would have performed multiple measurements and determined the mean of launch times for multiple applications. I don’t care enough to spend my time doing that. ↩︎