CSS prefers-reduced-motion Media Query

By  on  

When I started in the web development industry, media queries were limited -- screen and print were the two media queries I was most often using. More than a decade later, media queries have advanced to various screen units, feature checking, and even color scheme preference. I've been so happy to see CSS evolve beyond incredibly generic settings.

One of the CSS media queries I've recently discovered is prefers-reduced-motion, a media query for users sensitive to excessive motion.

Let's use prefers-reduced-motion to show motion to all users but none to sensitive users:

.animation {
  animation: vibrate 0.2s; 
}

@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
  .animation {
    animation: none;
  }
}

The example above illustrates how we can cater to sensitive users by not animating elements for those who have said they don't want them.

It's amazing how media queries like this can really show users that you care. Sure, we love the fancy razzle-dazzle but not everyone can handle that motion.

Recent Features

  • By
    Create Namespaced Classes with MooTools

    MooTools has always gotten a bit of grief for not inherently using and standardizing namespaced-based JavaScript classes like the Dojo Toolkit does.  Many developers create their classes as globals which is generally frowned up.  I mostly disagree with that stance, but each to their own.  In any event...

  • By
    9 Mind-Blowing Canvas Demos

    The <canvas> element has been a revelation for the visual experts among our ranks.  Canvas provides the means for incredible and efficient animations with the added bonus of no Flash; these developers can flash their awesome JavaScript skills instead.  Here are nine unbelievable canvas demos that...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    CSS Text Overlap

    One of the important functions of CSS is to position elements. Margin, padding, top, left, right, bottom, position, and z-index are just a few of the major players in CSS positioning. By using the above spacing...

  • By
    Create a Simple Dojo Accordion

    Let's be honest:  even though we all giggle about how cheap of a thrill JavaScript accordions have become on the web, they remain an effective, useful widget.  Lots of content, small amount of space.  Dojo's Dijit library provides an incredibly simply method by which you can...

Discussion

  1. Hey David!

    As someone that has suffered vestibular disorders before, prefers-reduced-motion is a godsend.

    A somewhat better, broader implementation is using the a really short animation-duration instead of animation: none, as it’s fairly common to implement animations in such a way that starts off screen or otherwise invisible, which could mean the elements don’t show up at all if using animation: none. Iteration count will prevent us from getting infinite loops.

    Same thing can be achieved for transitions.

    @media screen and
      (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce){
      * {
        animation-duration: 0.001ms !important;
        animation-iteration-count: 1 !important; 
        transition-duration: 0.001ms !important;
    
      }
    }
    

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!