8 Captivating Examples of Loading Animations

As users are offered more and more in terms of loading speed, amount of info and expansive search results, they are becoming impatient if the website loading takes longer than they expected. So designers are doing their best to entertain the users every second they spend on the page, including the preloaders. Captive and fun preloaders can hold the attention and prevent the user from leaving your page. We have created a list with 8 examples of creative and captive loading animations that are fun to look at and for sure will get your users talk about them!

Preloaders are important and even crucial website elements that let your users know everything is OK with the website: it did not crash, it’s just processing the information. They can come in any form and shape but recently designers started paying a lot of attention to them. Smart preloaders can engage the user and even positively affect the users and their attitude towards the website. Remember the famous Google dino that appears when connection is lost? This is an excellent example of turning something negative into something positive: while breaking the highest score the user would want the connection to stay lost!

So we’ve created and assembled this list of fun preloaders that you can consider using in your website. Enjoy and let us know which one grabbed your attention in comments!

Books on the shelves

This one is perfect for educational websites, libraries, book shops, etc. Anything related to studies and knowledge — this minimalistic preloader looks attractive yet fits into business style without being too boring.

The cheesy pizza one

What can be better than pizza? Especially with lots of cheese that makes everybody drool. This animation is fun — and not necessarily to use for food websites only! It can be used for TV, movies and any kind of entertainment websites -or for a business if it’s creative enough.

The bouncy button

This preloader is special because it features few actions and looks more like a teeny-tiny cartoon rather than a simple preloader. It’s basically universal and can be used for online shops, banks, educational institutions — but make sure it goes well with overall website colors and design. What’s nice about it is the fact it keeps you amused and engaged — you are willing to know what will happen to the button and it makes you forget you’ve been waiting for the page to load.

The bird head

This animation looks fun but at the same time it’s rather simple. So despite its look, it can be used for TV, radio, movies, social media and similar websites.

The paper deleting

OK, who doesn’t enjoy looking at things being deleted or shredded? It gives you some sort of inner peace so no wonder this animation is in our list. It’s fun, it’s relaxing (in its own way) so would fit perfectly for personal blogs and entertainment websites.

The sports one

This one is quite obvious — all kinds of sport websites, sport news, sport digests, etc. However, you can steal the idea for your own business and replace the numerous balls with other objects — because why not?

The simple one

This animation is rather simple but don’t underestimate it. It’s captivating, attractive and rather neutral so it would fit for any kind of business or website. Play with colors and shapes and voila — here is a perfect preloader for you and your business!

The running man

It’s funny, it’s pretty and you smile when you look at it — what more would you ask for? This little buddy can be used for personal blogs, entertainment, sports, even education — all due to positive emotions it makes you feel!

This list is just a short overlook of what preloaders you can use and in what forms they come. There are many free preloaders you can find in the Internet or you can choose a more challenging way and build your own (or ask for it at software development company). This way you will have a 100% unique animation created especially for you that would totally reflect your brand and your message for the users. Don’t be afraid to be daring and creative — your users will appreciate that!

Written by Alex Mikulik

8 Captivating Examples of Loading Animations was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.