Part of the design exploration stage in building UI layouts and interactions usually involves iterating on prototype as I build. This helps to inform aesthetic decisions as I go—focusing on particular areas of interaction and animation feedback, which in turn help guide design decisions. This usually ranges from micro-animations all the way to broad transitions, depending on the solution I'm focused on designing.

It's often that design and interaction work together to form a visual design language, and leveraging both as I engage in design can help to build a more complete picture of what the user experience could be.

This will typically come after a round of UX that identified core interaction or goals, and is included in the hi-fidelity design process in order to help refine or validate interaction assumptions, with a strong focus on design polish.

It's not uncommon to branch off and end up with a large amount of variation as it's a very instinctive (and iterative) process, which in whole provides a lot of feedback in what works and what should be explored further.

Figma