mobile-touch

name: mobile-touch description: Use when designing iOS/Android gestures, haptic feedback, touch interactions, or native mobile animations.

Mobile Touch Animation

Apply Disney's 12 animation principles to mobile gestures, haptics, and native app motion.

Quick Reference

Principle Applications

Squash & Stretch: Implement rubber-band effect at scroll boundaries. Pull-to-refresh should stretch content naturally. Buttons compress on touch.

Anticipation: Long-press shows preview before full action. Drag threshold provides visual hint before item lifts. Swipe shows edge of destination content.

Staging: Use sheet presentations to maintain context. Dim and scale background during modal focus. Hero transitions connect views meaningfully.

Straight Ahead vs Pose to Pose: Gesture-following animations (drag, pinch) are straight ahead—driven by touch input. System transitions (push, present) are pose to pose—predefined keyframes.

Follow Through & Overlapping: Content continues moving after finger lifts (momentum). Navigation bar elements animate slightly after main content. Lists items settle with stagger.

Slow In / Slow Out: iOS uses spring physics—configure mass, stiffness, damping. Android Material uses standard easing: FastOutSlowIn. Never use linear for user-initiated motion.

Arc: Thrown cards follow parabolic arcs. Swipe-to-dismiss curves based on velocity vector. FAB expand/collapse follows natural arc path.

Secondary Action: Pair haptic feedback with visual response. Button ripple accompanies press. Success checkmark triggers light haptic.

Timing: Touch acknowledgment: <100ms. Quick actions: 150-250ms. View transitions: 250-350ms. Complex animations: 350-500ms. Haptic should sync precisely with visual.

Exaggeration: Pull-to-refresh stretches beyond natural—makes feedback clear. Error shake is pronounced. Success animations celebrate appropriately.

Solid Drawing: Respect device safe areas during animation. Maintain consistent transform origins. Account for notch/dynamic island in motion paths.

Appeal: Minimum 60fps, target 120fps on ProMotion displays. Gesture-driven animation must feel connected to finger. Interruptible animations essential.

Platform Patterns

iOS

// Spring animation with follow-through
UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.5,
               delay: 0,
               usingSpringWithDamping: 0.7,
               initialSpringVelocity: 0.5,
               options: .curveEaseOut)

// Haptic pairing
let feedback = UIImpactFeedbackGenerator(style: .medium)
feedback.impactOccurred()

Android

// Material spring animation
SpringAnimation(view, DynamicAnimation.TRANSLATION_Y)
    .setSpring(SpringForce()
        .setStiffness(SpringForce.STIFFNESS_MEDIUM)
        .setDampingRatio(SpringForce.DAMPING_RATIO_MEDIUM_BOUNCY))
    .start()

Haptic Guidelines

Haptics are secondary action—always pair with visual confirmation.