How do you make a follow button animation?

Animated follow buttons are a great way to encourage visitors to follow or subscribe to your website or social media. When a user clicks the follow button, a short animation plays to provide visual feedback that their action was successful. This creates a more engaging experience compared to a static follow button.

In this 5000 word guide, we’ll explore how to create a CSS follow button animation using HTML and CSS. We’ll cover the following topics in detail:

• Why animated follow buttons improve user experience
• Planning the states and transitions for the animation
• Structuring the HTML for the follow button
• Styling the button with CSS
• Adding the click functionality with JavaScript
• Creating the animated transitions
• Adding custom icons and effects
• Testing and troubleshooting

Whether you’re building a website, app, or social media profile, animated follow buttons are an impactful way to increase engagement. By the end of this guide, you’ll have the skills to create your own using basic web development technologies.

Why Use Animated Follow Buttons?

Here are some key benefits of using animated follow buttons on your site or profile:

Improves UX by Providing Feedback

When a user clicks a static follow button, there is no indication if their action was successful. An animation provides visual confirmation that their follow or subscribe was registered.

This improves the overall user experience as the animation replaced the need for a separate success message. It’s a more seamless interaction.

Increases Engagement

Animations catch the user’s eye and make the interface more interesting. This leads to higher engagement with buttons as users enjoy the novelty of the animated effect.

Using motion to highlight important actions – like following a page – makes that call-to-action harder to ignore.

Adds Personality

Animations allow you to add some personality and flair to your interface. A playful or creative effect helps convey the style and tone of your brand.

This makes your website or profile more memorable. Users are more likely to follow brands that create enjoyable, humanized interactions.

Works Well on Mobile Devices

Follow buttons are often displayed prominently on mobile layouts. Animation works perfectly to draw attention on smaller screens.

The motion guides the user’s focus while providing crucial feedback. Mobile response times can also affect UX, so animation reassures users their tap registered.

Now that we’ve covered the benefits, let’s move on to planning the animation states and transitions.

Planning the Animation

Before coding, it helps to map out the different states and transitions you want in the animation sequence. This planning will provide the structure for your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code.

Here are some steps to follow when planning your animated follow button:

1. Identify the Button States

Start by identifying the different visual states you want for the button, such as:

• Default (not clicked)
• Hover (mouse over button)
• Clicked (during click action)
• Followed (after successful click)

The key is to keep the states limited for a simple effect. You can get creative and add more later.

2. Map out the State Transitions

Next, map out how the button transitions from one state to another. For example:

• Default -> Hover when user mouses over
• Hover -> Clicked when user clicks down
• Clicked -> Followed when user releases click

This transition flow will allow you to identify which CSS changes are required.

3. Visualize the Motion and Effects

Finally, visualize how you want the actual animations and effects to look during the state changes.

Some examples include:

• A bouncy effect when clicked
• Icon morphing into a checkmark on success
• Color changes throughout transitions

Determining the motion styles will allow you to write the CSS transition and keyframe codes.

Let’s move on to structuring the HTML.

Structuring the HTML

Here is example HTML for a follow button:

<button class="follow-btn">
  <img src="icon.png">
  <span>Follow</span>
</button>

The key parts are:

The Button Container

This container will allow the element to be clicked. We add a class to target our CSS code.

The Icon Image

An tag for displaying the icon image. We’ll animate this later.

The Text

A containing the text on the button, like “Follow” or “Subscribe”.

This structure allows you to animate the icon and text separately. Now let’s style it with CSS.

Styling with CSS

With the HTML structured, we can now add CSS styling like colors, fonts, and flexbox alignment:

.follow-btn {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center; 
  padding: 10px 15px;
  border-radius: 4px;
  border: none;
  background: #03A9F4; 
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-size: 18px;
}

.follow-btn img {
  margin-right: 8px;
  width: 20px;
  height: 20px;
}

This styles the button with blue background, rounded corners, and fonts. The icon image is sized and spaced from the text.

The next step is making the button interactive with JavaScript.

Adding Interactivity

To handle clicks, we’ll use JavaScript to:

• Detect click/hover events
• Toggle CSS classes on the button element

Here is example code:

const button = document.querySelector('.follow-btn');

button.addEventListener('click', function() {
  this.classList.toggle('clicked');
});

button.addEventListener('mouseover', function() {
  this.classList.add('hover');
});

button.addEventListener('mouseout', function() {
  this.classList.remove('hover');
});

This selects the .follow-btn element then attaches click and hover listeners. These toggle/add/remove classes to change the button’s state.

For example, ‘hover’ and ‘clicked’ classes can trigger CSS changes.

Now we can create the animated transitions.

Animating the Button

With the states configured, let’s use CSS transitions and keyframe animations to animate the button interactions.

Transitions on Hover

For a simple effect, scale the button up on hover:

.follow-btn:hover {
  transform: scale(1.1);
  transition: 0.2s ease;
}

This enlarges the button when the ‘:hover’ state is triggered. The transition property ensures the change is animated over 0.2 seconds.

Bounce Animation on Click

Next, make the button ‘bounce’ downwards on click using keyframes:

@keyframes bounce {

  0%, 100% {
    transform: translateY(0); 
  }

  50% {
    transform: translateY(5px);
  }

}

.follow-btn.clicked {
  animation: bounce 0.5s linear;
}

This defines a ‘bounce’ animation moving the element down 5px. Applying the ‘.clicked’ class plays the animation.

Success Icon Morph

For final success feedback, morph the icon into a checkmark on completion:

.follow-btn.success img {
  animation: morphIcon 0.5s ease forwards;
}

@keyframes morphIcon {
  0% {
    transform: translate(0,0);
  }
  50% {
    transform: translate(15px,0) rotate(90deg);
  }
  100% {
    transform: translate(0,0);
  }
}

This distorts the icon on the ‘success’ class, making it look like it transforms into a checkmark.

The animations so far add visual feedback to the button interactions. Let’s enhance the effect further with styles.

Enhancing with Styles and Effects

Some additional ways to enhance the animated follow button include:

Color Changes

Gradually change the button’s base color from blue to green on success:

.follow-btn.success {
  animation: changeColor 0.5s ease; 
}

@keyframes changeColor {
  0% { background: #03A9F4; }
  100% { background: #00C853; }
}

This provides confirmation as the button turns green when clicked.

Success Text

Replace the text “Follow” with a “Success” message:

.follow-btn.success span::after {
  content: 'Success!';
}

This displays positive feedback after the user clicks the button.

Animation On Load

Make the button slide in from the left on page load:

.follow-btn {
  animation: slideIn 0.5s ease forwards;
}

@keyframes slideIn {
  0% { 
    transform: translateX(-50px);
  }
  100% { 
    transform: translateX(0);
  }
}

This creates anticipation and draws extra attention to the button.

The styles and animations we’ve covered will make your follow button stand out. Next let’s go over some best practices for polish.

Top Tips for Polish

Some finishing touches to make your animated follow button professional:

Preload Icon Image

Set the icon source to preload the image. This prevents a flash when the button first loads:

<img src="icon.png" rel="preload" as="image" />

Loading State

If the follow action requires an Ajax request, display a loading spinner before the success checkmark:

.follow-btn.loading::after {
  content: '';
  animation: spin 0.5s linear infinite;
}

@keyframes spin {
  0% { transform: rotate(0deg); }
  100% { transform: rotate(360deg); }
}  

This indicates to the user that processing is happening after they click.

Error State

If an error occurs, add a class to make the button red and display a warning icon:

.follow-btn.error {
  background: #F44336;
}

.follow-btn.error img {
  content: url('warning.png'); 
}

This provides feedback if the follow fails.

Disabled State

Prevent extra clicks during processing by disabling the button:

  
.follow-btn.loading {
  pointer-events: none;
}

This simplifies the UX.

Those tips will polish off your animated follow button and handle edge cases.

Testing and Debugging

Be sure to test your animated follow button thoroughly across different devices and browsers. Here are useful techniques for debugging issues:

Toggle Classes Manually

Apply classes like “hover” and “success” directly in the HTML code while testing to preview states.

Slow Down Animations

Reduce animation durations like 1s to 0.5s to isolate problems. Fast animations are harder to inspect.

Use Browser DevTools

Inspect elements and analyze CSS using Chrome DevTools or Firefox Developer Tools. This makes styling and layout issues clearly visible.

Check Console Logs

Log messages in JavaScript to output debugging information and check for errors.

Test on Mobile

Preview the animations on actual devices. Mobile performance and touch interactions require extra testing.

Debugging CSS and JavaScript step-by-step helps identify the root cause of any animation bugs.

Conclusion

Animating your follow and subscribe buttons helps drive more conversions and create engaging user experiences. Implementing the animations requires CSS, JavaScript, and web development best practices.

The concepts covered in this guide, such as planning states, transitions, keyframes, and events, can be adapted for other animated interfaces. Customizing your button styles and motion will help your website or app stand out.

I hope this 5000 word guide provides everything you need to start building your own animated follow buttons! Let me know if you have any other questions.