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
    Responsive and Infinitely Scalable JS Animations

    Back in late 2012 it was not easy to find open source projects using requestAnimationFrame() - this is the hook that allows Javascript code to synchronize with a web browser's native paint loop. Animations using this method can run at 60 fps and deliver fantastic...

  • By
    6 Things You Didn’t Know About Firefox OS

    Firefox OS is all over the tech news and for good reason:  Mozilla's finally given web developers the platform that they need to create apps the way they've been creating them for years -- with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.  Firefox OS has been rapidly improving...

Incredible Demos

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!