Accessibility and Motion

How to design the delightful user experience you want for your sighted / non-motion sensitive users, without triggering distraction, nausea and migraines in the rest of us

“Moderation in all things is the best policy.”

- Roman comic dramatist Plautus (c.250–184 BCE)

While Plautus never had to deal with motion in the context of technology, his commentary on moderation is definitely relevant to the topic of making motion accessible to all users. The following elements are common sources of motion on web pages and in mobile apps:

• A small “jiggle” of a field outline acting as a subtle reminder that data must be entered before a form can be submitted
• Auto-playing carousels and videos
• Simple unlooped animated .GIF
• Microsoft Clippy-like “LOOK AT ME” continuously-looping, attention-grabbing animation

You may be one of the lucky people who have learned to ignore or even benefit from motion. Yet there are many distinct groups of individuals who are adversely impacted by motion which can include people with chronic motion sickness, dyslexia, epilepsy, migraines…