AddThisFeature

Motion Token System

Give the app one shared vocabulary of durations and easing curves instead of ad hoc numbers.

moderate Design Systems

What it adds

A named set of durations and easing curves, each tied to a category of motion, replacing the timing values scattered through the app's components.

What your agent is told to do

5
  1. 1

    Inventory every duration and easing value currently written into the app and group them by what they do: something entering, something leaving, something being emphasised, and something changing size or position.

  2. 2

    Name a small set of durations — roughly instant, quick, standard, and deliberate — and a small set of curves, then map each motion category to a pairing. Four or five of each is enough for an entire product.

  3. 3

    Give entrances and exits different treatment. Something arriving should decelerate into place; something leaving should accelerate away and take less time, because nobody wants to wait for a dismissal.

  4. 4

    Define a reduced-motion value for every token rather than a single global switch that sets everything to zero. Some motion should shorten, some should become a cross-fade, and some should vanish entirely.

  5. 5

    Do not use a single easing curve for everything. A curve that suits a panel sliding in makes a hover state feel sluggish, and the same curve on a layout change reads as the interface hesitating.

Edge cases it handles

7
  • Every token needs a defined behaviour when the user has asked for reduced motion, and the answer is not always zero — a shortened fade often communicates better than an instant jump.
  • One curve applied to every kind of motion is the failure this feature exists to prevent; entrances, exits, emphasis, and layout changes each need their own pairing.
  • Motion attached to something a user does many times an hour — a menu opening, a row expanding — must sit at the short end of the scale, because a duration that feels elegant once feels like lag on the fiftieth repetition.
  • Interrupting a transition partway through must resolve from the current position rather than snapping to the start, or rapid clicking produces visible jumps.
  • This entry owns the values only. Which properties are allowed to animate and where motion is omitted belongs to Transition Consistency, and the mounting and unmounting lifecycle belongs to Enter and Exit Animation Pattern.
  • Durations must survive being read from a stylesheet by scripted animation too, so the two do not drift apart.
  • Tokens need to be inspectable at runtime, or nobody will be able to tell which one a given element is using when it looks wrong.

Definition of done

8
  • Durations and easing curves are defined once as named tokens and referenced everywhere.
  • No component in the app carries a hardcoded duration or curve.
  • Entrances, exits, emphasis, and layout changes each map to a distinct pairing.
  • Every token has a defined reduced-motion counterpart.
  • Frequently repeated interactions use the shortest durations in the scale.
  • Scripted animation and stylesheet animation read the same token values.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.