Using the shimmer effect in FlutterFlow to enhance user experience

In modern app design, the user experience is everything. One of the more subtle but effective design trends you may have noticed is the shimmer effect—used in place of static loading indicators. Rather than showing a blank screen or simple loading icon, the shimmer effect provides a visual cue that content is being loaded, creating a more polished and engaging experience for users.

In this blog, we’ll dive into how you can implement the shimmer effect in your FlutterFlow app and why it’s a great addition to improve the perceived performance of your app. Plus, we’ll include some examples along the way to help you understand how it works.

What is the shimmer effect?

The shimmer effect is a smooth, animated placeholder that gives the illusion of loading content. Instead of a blank screen, a shimmering placeholder shows where content like text, images, or lists will appear. This animation mimics the look of light reflecting on a surface, giving users a sense that the app is actively loading data, even if it’s still in progress.

Pretty much every single app you have on your phone uses it in some way - Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Snapchat, banking apps, gaming apps, studying apps, etc.

Why use the shimmer effect?

1. Improved perception of performance - even though the shimmer effect doesn’t speed up loading times, it gives the impression of a more responsive app. Users are more tolerant of waiting when they see active feedback.
2. Engagement - the animation is more engaging than a static loading screen, helping to keep users’ attention during content load times.
3. Design consistency - it keeps your app looking polished and consistent by using placeholders that match the design of your final content. For example, you can create shimmer placeholders that mirror the shape of images, buttons, or text that will eventually load.
   

How to implement the shimmer effect in FlutterFlow

FlutterFlow makes it easy to implement the shimmer effect in your app with just a few steps. Here’s a guide to get you started:

1. Set up shimmer placeholder widgets

Start by adding a container or placeholder widget where the content will eventually be loaded. You’ll design this to mimic the layout of your final content, such as text blocks, images, or buttons. We recommend setting the color of the placeholder widget to #F6F6F6 for apps with white backgrounds.

2. Add shimmer animation

In FlutterFlow, you can add shimmer animations to these placeholder widgets by setting up an animation action. This animation will move a gradient across the placeholder, giving it the characteristic shimmer appearance. We recommend setting the animation settings to: Loop animation, Shimmer (Ease In Out), Duration (ms): 1800, Color: #FFFFFF (for apps with a white background), Angle: 30.

3. Set as Background Query Loading Widget

Real-world use cases for the shimmer effect

Here are a few examples of where the shimmer effect shines in real-world applications:

• Content feeds: in social media or news apps, the shimmer effect is used in place of static loading indicators when fetching new posts or articles.
• E-commerce apps: product listings often use shimmer placeholders to show where images, descriptions, and prices will appear once the product data is loaded.
• Profile pages: instead of displaying blank sections, profile pages can use shimmer effects to show placeholders for avatars, names, and user details while waiting for the backend to load the full data.
  

Examples of the shimmer effect in action

If you are displaying cards on a page, the effect could look like this:

If you are displaying a list of data, it might look like this:

If you have a chat in your app, you could build a shimmer effect like this one:

These are just a few examples, but a shimmer effect could literally be built for anything!

Best practices for using the shimmer effect

• Keep it subtle - while the shimmer effect can make your app feel more interactive, don’t overdo it. Use it in moderation—primarily in areas where content load times might be noticeable to the user.
• Match the layout - ensure that the shimmer placeholders closely resemble the final layout of your content, so users know what to expect when the data is loaded.
• Use skeleton loading - in addition to shimmer effects, consider combining it with skeleton loading placeholders for larger blocks of content (e.g., images and text) to provide even more visual context during load times.

Conclusion

The shimmer effect is a powerful, yet subtle, way to enhance the user experience in your FlutterFlow app. It provides feedback during content loading, helps engage users, and makes your app feel faster, even when it’s waiting for data. Try implementing it in key parts of your app to see how it can improve both performance perception and design.

If you want to see more examples or need help implementing this in your own FlutterFlow project, feel free to reach out.