Creative Loading Effects

Today we’d like to show you some ideas for creative loading effects. Nowadays, many different page loading animations are used in websites; just think of the subtle red loading bar seen on YouTube. When loading something on a page, be it images or the next content, we don’t have to be restricted to a tiny loading indicator but we can get creative and big. So the idea is to indicate that something is happening in a stylish way without creating too much distraction for the user. There might be actions where this might not be adequate, but in some situations it might be quite fitting and amplifying for the overall design.

Please note that the examples only serve as inspiration, they are dummies and not meant for production. You’ll have to use the transitions or animation together with a custom JavaScript solution.

We mostly just use one division and an example for an effect is the following one where we expand a slit to fill all the page from the center:

.la-anim-7 {
	position: fixed;
	top: 50%;
	bottom: 0;
	left: 50%;
	z-index: -1;
	width: 0;
	height: 100%;
	background: rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
	transform: translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%);
	pointer-events: none;
}

.la-anim-7.la-animate {
	z-index: 100;
	width: 100%;
	opacity: 0;
	transition: width 5s ease-in, opacity 1s 5s;
}

Some browsers don’t support transitions or animations on pseudo-elements, so some of the effects in the demo won’t be animating. The examples also won’t work in browsers that don’t support CSS 3D transforms (e.g. in IE9 and below).

The SVG pie timer was made by Anders Grimsrud. The loading circle in the corner indicator example is by Metty.

Snapshots of some of the effects:

I hope these loading ideas give you some inspiration for your next project!