Paul Stamatiou on the role of motion in modern design:
Times are changing. Things like page transitions will still exist but involve more of the elements on each page. You’ll begin choreographing. In the next few years consideration for motion will be required to be a good citizen of your desktop/mobile/wearable/auto/couch platform. It will be an expected part of the design process just like people will begin to expect this level of activity and character in software.
Motion is becoming an essential component of design, and with the recent transition to a minimalist aesthetic across platforms animating the interface has become a whole lot simpler. With the advent of solid CSS animation support and speedy animation frameworks like Velocity.js I expect Web design to move in this direction as well.