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Animation · Morph & transform · 14

Icon Morph

Icon Morph = one icon that smoothly becomes another (plus to check, menu to close) to signal a state change without swapping elements.

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Respects prefers-reduced-motion: the animation is disabled and the final state is shown.

What is a Icon Morph?

An icon morph turns a state change into a single fluid gesture — a plus becomes a check, a menu becomes a close. Instead of swapping two elements, the shapes cross-fade and rotate so the eye reads continuity, not a cut. Keep the two states visually related or the morph looks like a glitch.

Animation Specimen

Trigger
hover
Tech
css
Duration
2s
Easing
ease-in-out
Performance
transform, opacity

When to use

  • Add-to-done, menu-to-close, play-to-pause
  • Any toggle where the icon is the status

Avoid when

  • Two unrelated shapes — the morph reads as a glitch
  • Without a text/aria label for the state

Keep the two shapes related (plus/check, menu/close) or the morph looks like a bug.

See also

Morph one icon into another: cross-fade + rotate (0.4s) between state A and B, transform and opacity only, on state change.