Following all the buzz surrounding Google's Material Design aesthetic, it struck me that animation and behavior was at the center of a lot of it. I've had several conversations around creating pleasing animations and reactions to a user's input and how adding this dimension to a design gives it depth and character far  beyond a typical 'dead' design. Designer Paul Stamatiou puts it this way:

Motion can and should go beyond a veneer of polish or delight. It's another avenue for adding personality, educating your users about how to interact with particular elements and for creating a story for the user...

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.

In the very near future (read: now), designers are going to be required to know the ins and outs of animations, transitions and keyframes. And having grown up in Macromedia (erm, Adobe) Flash, this does nothing but make me happy.