Animation plugins are unquestionably useful, though perhaps not much in terms of mere practical utility. However, these plugins provide an interesting addition to the average user interface with little to no effects that we are used to seeing.
However, with the passage of time, over the years, we have witnessed an upward trend in creating very cool interfaces and a number of scripts (developed on some of the most widespread libraries) have been released and made available.
The majority of them are also very easy to use, even for total beginners, leading to the use (sometimes unjustified) of them in nearly every web application.
Most of the animation plugins we will have a chance of analyzing are aimed towards the creation of an "alternative" behavior for those that would otherwise be quite standard elements. For example, the sliding effect is an interesting add-on to the accordion plugin that we have created earlier in this chapter. It adds that fancy twist, which is extremely appreciated...