Animation in Litmus Personalize

A few months after launching the MVP of Litmus Personalize , the team began evaluating new content types that could help boost customer adoption. In our initial UX research sessions, we heard that customers would appreciate more fun and engaging content. At the time, there weren’t many options for animated GIFs in the market, so I proposed adding a new content type: an Image Carousel.

This content type showed strong potential. Since animated content in emails is typically limited—GIFs being the most widely supported—carousels offered a creative way to display multiple products in a single email. They’re a common tactic in marketing campaigns to drive both engagement and conversions.

The engineering team had already figured out the GIF creation process based on Countdown Timers, so technically, animated GIFs were lower risk and easier to implement.

I explored potential transitions and the customizations needed for them below, to discuss with the team the best way forward.

Slide effect — Instant swap—the fastest and easiest for development

Fade in and out effect — Fade in and out

Customer-generated text — Animating customer-generated text

On top of the quickest-to-build animation, I also created more advanced versions—these included building a library of effects and exploring other content types that could use animation to become more engaging once the technology was in place.

Sparkle effect — Adding animated elements from the Library of pre-built effects.

Fireworks effect — Adding animation to other content types (e.g. progress bars)

The results

Soon after the release, customers began creating a variety of exemplary animations using the tool. Their creations offered valuable insights into potential product enhancements—such as animation duration, speed, and image limits.

Within just two months, Image Carousel became one of the top five most-used content types out of a dozen released.