Buttons

Button Press Animation

A tactile scale-down on click with a quick, snappy release.

Edit this in the studio

Opens with this animation loaded. Nothing is uploaded — the scene travels in the link.

animation.css
.button-press {
  transform: translate3d(165px, 137px, 0);
  width: 150px;
  height: 46px;
  background: #22d3ee;
  border-radius: 999px;
  color: #06281e;
  font-size: 15px;
  font-weight: 700;
  transition: transform 160ms ease-out;
}

.button-press:hover {
  transform: translate3d(165px, 137px, 0) scale(1.04, 1.04);
}

.button-press:active {
  transform: translate3d(165px, 137px, 0) scale(0.96, 0.96);
  transition: transform 80ms ease-in;
}

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

Why it is built this way

The press is faster than the return on purpose. Asymmetric timing is the whole trick: matching them makes the button feel spongy, while a quick squash and a slower release reads as physical.

What it animates

No keyframes at all — this one is built from interaction states, so the browser only does anything when the visitor does.

What it costs to run

Nothing here runs on a timer. The motion lives entirely in :hover and :active, which compiles to a transition — so it costs nothing until the visitor does something, and it interrupts and reverses cleanly halfway through.

Accessibility

A reader who never triggers :hover and :active never sees this, so it carries no risk on load. Worth adding a :focus-visible state alongside it: as written, a keyboard user gets no feedback at all.

Related animations

buttonactivepressscale