Intersectional

Motion Sensitivity

Persona: Yuki

Yuki, 31, Japanese American, rents a studio apartment. A graphic designer who experiences vestibular migraines and avoids animation-heavy interfaces when symptomatic.

About This Condition

Scrolling, zooming, or animated interfaces can trigger dizziness, nausea, or disorientation. For people with vestibular disorders, migraine, or anxiety, motion in digital environments is not decorative. It can be a barrier that ends a session entirely.

Digital Challenges

Parallax scrolling, animated transitions, and auto-playing carousels can trigger immediate physical symptoms. When there is no way to pause, reduce, or disable motion, the only option is to leave. Interfaces that ignore prefers-reduced-motion make participation conditional on tolerating discomfort.

Assistive Technologies

  • Reduced motion OS settings
  • screen readers
  • keyboard navigation

Design Considerations

Respect the prefers-reduced-motion media query on all animated components. Replace motion-based transitions with instant state changes. Provide an in-product control to disable animations independently of operating system settings.

Clinical Examples

Vestibular migraine, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), labyrinthitis, anxiety disorders