A gesture is a piece of motion that carries meaning beyond its mechanical function. A drawer that slides isn't a gesture. A drawer that lifts off the surface, pauses, and then settles — that's a gesture. It's saying something about weight, about intention.
The trap is decorative motion: animation that exists because the engineer enjoyed writing it. The fix is to ask, before every transition, what does this motion know? If the answer is nothing, cut it.