The Easiest Way to Code May Not Be the Best

The most recent form of the CSS language puts many seemingly complex pieces of animation functionality and interactivity within range of web designers who do not consider themselves to be on the level of accredited professionals. Functions that might have once required separately loaded files exported in the Flash format can now be accomplished with a blend of CSS and JavaScript without causing anywhere near as much strain on the processing capacity of the reader's browser.

One simple but visually striking method of making a website's user interface "jump out" at the viewer is having buttons expand themselves horizontally to fill themselves with more clarified terminology while the user's mouse cursor is rolling over it. If several buttons representing similar options need to be present and tightly packed together on a particular area of a page, it would normally be cumbersome to have each button descriptively labeled by default.

For example, a downloadable image or media file might be available through a set of buttons that offer it in different file sizes, file formats, and quality settings. These pieces of information might be the only contents of the various buttons' labels at first, but the word "download" can be made to appear once the button is rolled over to clarify the context as needed. The viewer can safely be assumed to roll over the buttons out of curiosity while searching for a download link, and each button off to the side of the one currently expanded can be made to smoothly reposition itself.

A web designer must keep in mind the various ways that this can likely result in inconvenience for certain demographics among the website's potential audience, however. Mobile users typically do not have access to the mouse cursors that such an idea is dependent on, so it is likely that they would have to go through twice as many steps to follow the intended link of the button. To prevent this UI effect from adversely affecting the site's UX, the designer would have to conceive of a solution that lets mobile users follow the link in one click. For more information click here https://css-tricks.com/recreating-netlifys-neat-o-sliding-button-effect/.