Expand Transition

[edit] Expand Transition

Designer needs to show the detail of an object in its context or reveal a previously collapsed object.

Managing lots of content or modules.
Coupled with shrink to create a way to manage real estate on the screen.
As part of a rollover system (with Shrink) to emphasize the currently hovered on object (e.g., photos in a photo album).
Need to see more detail (Y! Local maps).
Need to interact with content that was previously represented in a thumbnail version.
When wanting to see the detail of an item in a list (e.g., movie details in a movie list).
Making content available for edit. Use instead of a popup if the content being expanded is one of many items and there is a benefit to showing the detail in context with the other items.

Cheers pal. I do apprcieate the writing.

Expand is visually more eye-catching than a brighten, especially when combined with the move transition.
Be careful to not overuse expand. For example, in a photo application, if you provide a rollover to expand photos from thumbnail to a larger size the transitions will become annoying as the user will see them back-to-back. Either remove the transition altogether or make it extremely fast.