To help you rethink the role of hover effects on your site, we’ve curated a collection of inspiring examples from leading designers. You’ll discover impactful hover effects for every context, whether you’re building an attention-grabbing portfolio or creating a slick website for your brand. We’ll show you step-by-step how to implement each effect using Framer—transforming your site into a dynamic experience that keeps users coming back.
Hover effects walk a fine line between function and fashion. Some designers treat them as purely decoration. For others, hover interactions are essential to navigation, branding, and user engagement. When used strategically, hover effects can mean the difference between a confused visitor and a converted customer.
1. Color Transitions — Remix.supply
Remix.supply, a business that sells premium Framer templates, uses hover-triggered color transitions on its most important calls to action. Color shifts help users understand which elements are interactive, while also nudging them closer to conversion.
Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t matter what color you choose for your buttons. Strong color contrast does matter, though—so avoid gray-on-black buttons.
Tip: With Framer, you can recreate this effect by selecting your component, opening the Hover panel, and setting your hover transition color in the Fill settings. Framer gives you full control over other values too, like opacity and border.
2. Image Scaling — Martinie Design
Chris Martinie’s portfolio uses subtle image scaling to improve gallery navigation. Since his portfolio navigation is mostly driven by images, this effect makes it clear that each portfolio image is clickable and nudges users to interact for more information.
If you add image scaling effects to your site, use high-quality imagery; lower-resolution images can look grainy after being scaled up. Keep the scaling effect subtle, so the interaction feels polished and doesn’t overwhelm the user’s experience.
Tip: With Framer, you can set up image scaling using the Hover Effects panel. Select your image, click Scale, and fine-tune the values to find the right balance. Use Framer’s built-in easing functions to make sure the animation stays smooth and fits with your brand.
3. Text Transformation — Trifecta
Trifecta, a New York-based growth studio, uses hover effects to make their text interactive, turning standard headlines and paragraphs into engaging typography. As you hover over different areas, text elements shift to italics. The change is quick, but smooth and adds visual interest to key information, while staying legible.
When you add text hover effects, keep transitions under 200ms to maintain a snappy feel, and limit these interactions to important messages you want to call attention to. Too much movement can make your site feel busy and distract from your core message.
Tip: With Framer, quickly add text transformation by selecting your text element, open the Hover Effects panel, and add a skew effect. Then, fine-tune the transformation values to match your typography style.
4. Content Reveal — Claudio Guglieri
Claudio Guglieri, a San Francisco-based experience designer, uses hover effects to make his contact information more engaging and avoid cluttering his page with contact details. As you hover over the words “Let’s collaborate,” they smoothly transition into an email address, while a nearby arrow shifts color, too.
One trick for user-friendly content reveal interactions is to make sure your hidden content has the same dimensions as your visible content to prevent jarring layout shifts. Also, by adding subtle visual indicators, like arrows or underlines, you can help users discover your hidden content intuitively.
Tip: With Framer, you can create a similar content reveal effect by putting two motion.div elements in a container. Make one visible and one hidden, then swap their visibility and position on hover using Motion’s whileHover prop.
5. Shadow Effects — FEASTIE Festival
FEASTIE, a Toronto-based festival, uses hover effects to give their website’s buttons depth. Their 3D shadow effects turn flat elements into something more tactile and engaging (and go along nicely with FEASTIE’s 1970s-inspired branding.)
As you add shadow effects to your design, make sure the light direction is the same across all elements on your site to keep visuals consistent. You’ll also want to use larger shadows for elements that appear to lift higher off the page.
Tip: With Framer, you can create a similar hover-triggered shadow by going to your element’s Effects settings, selecting Hover, and then changing your shadow and offset settings. For more advanced shadow effects, check out Framer’s guide to realistic shadows.
6. Custom Cursor — Kind Heart Design
Kind Heart, a design studio, uses a custom cursor transformation to nudge users to explore its portfolio. As you explore Kind Heart’s projects, your cursor transforms into a button labeled “View Work” whenever you hover over a project.
When designing custom cursors, keep them lightweight and proportional to standard cursor sizes to avoid disrupting the user’s navigation flow. Make sure your custom cursor has enough contrast against all possible backgrounds to stay easily visible.
Tip: You can create hover-triggered custom cursor effects using Framer’s custom cursor tools. By setting up Variants that respond to the layers you’re hovering over, you can make your custom cursor nudge users toward different actions.
7. Border Animations — Slides Agency
Slides, a presentation design agency, uses subtle corner-radius animations to add sophistication to their project gallery and to make it clear to users that the images are clickable. As you hover over each project, the borders soften into a smooth curve.
When implementing corner-radius animations, keep the change subtle. For example, shifting from 0px to 8-12px is enough to create visual interest without distracting users. Consider pairing border animations with a subtle scale or shadow transformation to add a greater sense of depth.
Tip: With Framer, you can dynamically transform design’s borders by using Motion’s layout animations, which let you smoothly animate between different CSS values.
8. Speed Control — Packaly
Packaly, a zero-emission shipping network, has a scrolling list of customer logos on its homepage. As you hover over each logo, the scrolling effect slows down, making it easier to read each item.
When designing infinite scroll animations, aim for a base scrolling speed that‘s slow enough to be legible, but fast enough to show movement. Consider adding a subtle opacity or scale effect to the hovered item to further emphasize the active state while the animation slows.
Tip: With Framer, you can create this effect using the Ticker component. Framer’s settings let you fine-tune exactly how much the animation slows on hover, helping you find the perfect balance.
9. Hover Previews — Work By Tomorrow
Work By Tomorrow, a Vancouver-based branding and design studio, uses hover previews to make portfolio navigation easier. As you move over project titles, relevant images pop up alongside a scrolling “View Project” ticker that indicates whether a dedicated project page is available.
There are a couple of risks to avoid with hover previews. First, if your preview images are too slow to load, users might not see anything. Second, if your previews trigger too easily, they can create a chaotic experience as users move their cursor across the page. Tackle these issues by loading preview images quickly and adding a brief hover delay before revealing the preview. You can also use a subtle fade-in animation to make the transition feel polished.
Tip: You can create this effect in Framer using the Image on Hover Component. Layer this component above any element to reveal images on hover.
10. Microanimations — Thibaut Crépelle
Thibaut Crépelle, a 3D and motion designer, features a keyboard-style navigation menu in the footer of his portfolio site. When you hover over any key, you can see it move down as if you had pressed it. The interaction turns standard navigation into something memorable, while also showing off Crépelle’s motion design expertise.
When designing hover-triggered microanimations, keep your object’s movements subtle and quick to maintain a responsive feel. A movement of just a handful of pixels is often enough to create a satisfying “press” effect, while keeping the interface uncluttered.
Tip: With Framer, you can create this kind of interactive 3D element by designing them in Spline and embedding them directly in your Framer website.
11. 3D Hover Effects — Alejandro Mejias
Alejandro Mejias is a freelance experience designer. Visit his homepage and you’ll find a 3D ”A” that responds to cursor movement. Hover over it to view it from any angle, with rotation speed increasing on click.
Keep the rotation range moderate when designing 3D cursor-tracking elements, and apply subtle easing so the movement feels smooth. Consider adding a gentle ambient animation to let users know that the element is interactive.
Tip: With Framer, you can design similar hover effects by adding a 3D hover override to any element. (This override also makes the element follow your cursor.)
12. Video Hover Effects — Deeo Studio
Deeo is a design studio in Baltimore, Maryland. Rather than using traditional media players on their video-heavy homepage, Deeo has a custom cursor that lets you pause or play each video as you hover over it.
When designing hover-triggered video effects, make sure your videos are optimized for web playback and preloaded to prevent stuttering. Add visual indicators, like play and pause icons, that help users understand what to do without needing explicit instructions.
Tip: With Framer, you can take video hover effects even further by creating a cinematic video button that adds video to the background of your buttons.
Best Practices for Hover Effects
Here’s how to create hover effects that enhance your site’s usability while keeping it fast, accessible, and reflective of your brand.
1. Design With Intent
Hover effects should be a natural extension of your interface. Rather than adding effects just to make your site look nice, create purpose-driven interactions that guide users.
Start with clear visual feedback. Use subtle shadows to indicate clickable cards, gentle color shifts for buttons, and smooth transitions for interactive elements. Keep your animations fast: Users should feel an immediate connection between their actions and your site’s response.
2. Reflect Your Brand
Your brand’s personality should come through in the hover effects you choose. Animation timing and easing are the big variables here: A professional services firm might use quick and precise effects, while brands with a more creative persona might opt for more bouncy and drawn-out animations.
Hover effects might not seem like a brand-critical design element, but they matter. Stay true to your broader design language: Each effect should feel like a natural extension of your brand.
3. Deliver Smooth Performance
Keep animations swift and lightweight. Aim for subtle movements rather than complex transitions that might cause lag. Start with simple effects like color changes and subtle scaling, and test your hover effects across different devices to make sure they’re responsive and don’t cause stuttering or delays.
Performance depends on the other elements involved in your hover effects, too. If you’re using images or additional content in your hover states, make sure they’re optimized.
4. Ensure Accessibility
Traditional hover interactions don’t work on mobile devices, which means you’ll need to have alternative triggers that work universally (like buttons or other touch-based triggers, for example.) And make sure to never hide essential content behind hover states. Any information that appears on hover for desktop users should either be permanently visible on mobile or accessible through clear interactive elements like “tap to expand” buttons.
Also, keep in mind that some users have enabled reduced motion in their system settings. Using the useReducedMotion hook, you can detect this setting and automatically adjust or disable animations.
Transform Your Site With Hover Effects
Hover effects have the power to turn static websites into dynamic experiences, but their real impact comes from purposeful implementation. Focus on creating meaningful interactions that enhance your users’ experience instead of adding effects to every element.
Framer’s powerful toolkit makes it easy to experiment with these techniques whether you’re implementing subtle microanimations or bold interactive states. Explore the examples we’ve shared, combine approaches that work for your brand, and discover how thoughtful hover effects can transform your digital presence.
For more inspiration and examples, check out the Framer Gallery or learn about animation and effects in the Framer Academy.
Hover effects walk a fine line between function and fashion. Some designers treat them as purely decoration. For others, hover interactions are essential to navigation, branding, and user engagement. When used strategically, hover effects can mean the difference between a confused visitor and a converted customer.
1. Color Transitions — Remix.supply
Remix.supply, a business that sells premium Framer templates, uses hover-triggered color transitions on its most important calls to action. Color shifts help users understand which elements are interactive, while also nudging them closer to conversion.
Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t matter what color you choose for your buttons. Strong color contrast does matter, though—so avoid gray-on-black buttons.
Tip: With Framer, you can recreate this effect by selecting your component, opening the Hover panel, and setting your hover transition color in the Fill settings. Framer gives you full control over other values too, like opacity and border.
2. Image Scaling — Martinie Design
Chris Martinie’s portfolio uses subtle image scaling to improve gallery navigation. Since his portfolio navigation is mostly driven by images, this effect makes it clear that each portfolio image is clickable and nudges users to interact for more information.
If you add image scaling effects to your site, use high-quality imagery; lower-resolution images can look grainy after being scaled up. Keep the scaling effect subtle, so the interaction feels polished and doesn’t overwhelm the user’s experience.
Tip: With Framer, you can set up image scaling using the Hover Effects panel. Select your image, click Scale, and fine-tune the values to find the right balance. Use Framer’s built-in easing functions to make sure the animation stays smooth and fits with your brand.
3. Text Transformation — Trifecta
Trifecta, a New York-based growth studio, uses hover effects to make their text interactive, turning standard headlines and paragraphs into engaging typography. As you hover over different areas, text elements shift to italics. The change is quick, but smooth and adds visual interest to key information, while staying legible.
When you add text hover effects, keep transitions under 200ms to maintain a snappy feel, and limit these interactions to important messages you want to call attention to. Too much movement can make your site feel busy and distract from your core message.
Tip: With Framer, quickly add text transformation by selecting your text element, open the Hover Effects panel, and add a skew effect. Then, fine-tune the transformation values to match your typography style.
4. Content Reveal — Claudio Guglieri
Claudio Guglieri, a San Francisco-based experience designer, uses hover effects to make his contact information more engaging and avoid cluttering his page with contact details. As you hover over the words “Let’s collaborate,” they smoothly transition into an email address, while a nearby arrow shifts color, too.
One trick for user-friendly content reveal interactions is to make sure your hidden content has the same dimensions as your visible content to prevent jarring layout shifts. Also, by adding subtle visual indicators, like arrows or underlines, you can help users discover your hidden content intuitively.
Tip: With Framer, you can create a similar content reveal effect by putting two motion.div elements in a container. Make one visible and one hidden, then swap their visibility and position on hover using Motion’s whileHover prop.
5. Shadow Effects — FEASTIE Festival
FEASTIE, a Toronto-based festival, uses hover effects to give their website’s buttons depth. Their 3D shadow effects turn flat elements into something more tactile and engaging (and go along nicely with FEASTIE’s 1970s-inspired branding.)
As you add shadow effects to your design, make sure the light direction is the same across all elements on your site to keep visuals consistent. You’ll also want to use larger shadows for elements that appear to lift higher off the page.
Tip: With Framer, you can create a similar hover-triggered shadow by going to your element’s Effects settings, selecting Hover, and then changing your shadow and offset settings. For more advanced shadow effects, check out Framer’s guide to realistic shadows.
6. Custom Cursor — Kind Heart Design
Kind Heart, a design studio, uses a custom cursor transformation to nudge users to explore its portfolio. As you explore Kind Heart’s projects, your cursor transforms into a button labeled “View Work” whenever you hover over a project.
When designing custom cursors, keep them lightweight and proportional to standard cursor sizes to avoid disrupting the user’s navigation flow. Make sure your custom cursor has enough contrast against all possible backgrounds to stay easily visible.
Tip: You can create hover-triggered custom cursor effects using Framer’s custom cursor tools. By setting up Variants that respond to the layers you’re hovering over, you can make your custom cursor nudge users toward different actions.
7. Border Animations — Slides Agency
Slides, a presentation design agency, uses subtle corner-radius animations to add sophistication to their project gallery and to make it clear to users that the images are clickable. As you hover over each project, the borders soften into a smooth curve.
When implementing corner-radius animations, keep the change subtle. For example, shifting from 0px to 8-12px is enough to create visual interest without distracting users. Consider pairing border animations with a subtle scale or shadow transformation to add a greater sense of depth.
Tip: With Framer, you can dynamically transform design’s borders by using Motion’s layout animations, which let you smoothly animate between different CSS values.
8. Speed Control — Packaly
Packaly, a zero-emission shipping network, has a scrolling list of customer logos on its homepage. As you hover over each logo, the scrolling effect slows down, making it easier to read each item.
When designing infinite scroll animations, aim for a base scrolling speed that‘s slow enough to be legible, but fast enough to show movement. Consider adding a subtle opacity or scale effect to the hovered item to further emphasize the active state while the animation slows.
Tip: With Framer, you can create this effect using the Ticker component. Framer’s settings let you fine-tune exactly how much the animation slows on hover, helping you find the perfect balance.
9. Hover Previews — Work By Tomorrow
Work By Tomorrow, a Vancouver-based branding and design studio, uses hover previews to make portfolio navigation easier. As you move over project titles, relevant images pop up alongside a scrolling “View Project” ticker that indicates whether a dedicated project page is available.
There are a couple of risks to avoid with hover previews. First, if your preview images are too slow to load, users might not see anything. Second, if your previews trigger too easily, they can create a chaotic experience as users move their cursor across the page. Tackle these issues by loading preview images quickly and adding a brief hover delay before revealing the preview. You can also use a subtle fade-in animation to make the transition feel polished.
Tip: You can create this effect in Framer using the Image on Hover Component. Layer this component above any element to reveal images on hover.
10. Microanimations — Thibaut Crépelle
Thibaut Crépelle, a 3D and motion designer, features a keyboard-style navigation menu in the footer of his portfolio site. When you hover over any key, you can see it move down as if you had pressed it. The interaction turns standard navigation into something memorable, while also showing off Crépelle’s motion design expertise.
When designing hover-triggered microanimations, keep your object’s movements subtle and quick to maintain a responsive feel. A movement of just a handful of pixels is often enough to create a satisfying “press” effect, while keeping the interface uncluttered.
Tip: With Framer, you can create this kind of interactive 3D element by designing them in Spline and embedding them directly in your Framer website.
11. 3D Hover Effects — Alejandro Mejias
Alejandro Mejias is a freelance experience designer. Visit his homepage and you’ll find a 3D ”A” that responds to cursor movement. Hover over it to view it from any angle, with rotation speed increasing on click.
Keep the rotation range moderate when designing 3D cursor-tracking elements, and apply subtle easing so the movement feels smooth. Consider adding a gentle ambient animation to let users know that the element is interactive.
Tip: With Framer, you can design similar hover effects by adding a 3D hover override to any element. (This override also makes the element follow your cursor.)
12. Video Hover Effects — Deeo Studio
Deeo is a design studio in Baltimore, Maryland. Rather than using traditional media players on their video-heavy homepage, Deeo has a custom cursor that lets you pause or play each video as you hover over it.
When designing hover-triggered video effects, make sure your videos are optimized for web playback and preloaded to prevent stuttering. Add visual indicators, like play and pause icons, that help users understand what to do without needing explicit instructions.
Tip: With Framer, you can take video hover effects even further by creating a cinematic video button that adds video to the background of your buttons.
Best Practices for Hover Effects
Here’s how to create hover effects that enhance your site’s usability while keeping it fast, accessible, and reflective of your brand.
1. Design With Intent
Hover effects should be a natural extension of your interface. Rather than adding effects just to make your site look nice, create purpose-driven interactions that guide users.
Start with clear visual feedback. Use subtle shadows to indicate clickable cards, gentle color shifts for buttons, and smooth transitions for interactive elements. Keep your animations fast: Users should feel an immediate connection between their actions and your site’s response.
2. Reflect Your Brand
Your brand’s personality should come through in the hover effects you choose. Animation timing and easing are the big variables here: A professional services firm might use quick and precise effects, while brands with a more creative persona might opt for more bouncy and drawn-out animations.
Hover effects might not seem like a brand-critical design element, but they matter. Stay true to your broader design language: Each effect should feel like a natural extension of your brand.
3. Deliver Smooth Performance
Keep animations swift and lightweight. Aim for subtle movements rather than complex transitions that might cause lag. Start with simple effects like color changes and subtle scaling, and test your hover effects across different devices to make sure they’re responsive and don’t cause stuttering or delays.
Performance depends on the other elements involved in your hover effects, too. If you’re using images or additional content in your hover states, make sure they’re optimized.
4. Ensure Accessibility
Traditional hover interactions don’t work on mobile devices, which means you’ll need to have alternative triggers that work universally (like buttons or other touch-based triggers, for example.) And make sure to never hide essential content behind hover states. Any information that appears on hover for desktop users should either be permanently visible on mobile or accessible through clear interactive elements like “tap to expand” buttons.
Also, keep in mind that some users have enabled reduced motion in their system settings. Using the useReducedMotion hook, you can detect this setting and automatically adjust or disable animations.
Transform Your Site With Hover Effects
Hover effects have the power to turn static websites into dynamic experiences, but their real impact comes from purposeful implementation. Focus on creating meaningful interactions that enhance your users’ experience instead of adding effects to every element.
Framer’s powerful toolkit makes it easy to experiment with these techniques whether you’re implementing subtle microanimations or bold interactive states. Explore the examples we’ve shared, combine approaches that work for your brand, and discover how thoughtful hover effects can transform your digital presence.
For more inspiration and examples, check out the Framer Gallery or learn about animation and effects in the Framer Academy.
Hover effects walk a fine line between function and fashion. Some designers treat them as purely decoration. For others, hover interactions are essential to navigation, branding, and user engagement. When used strategically, hover effects can mean the difference between a confused visitor and a converted customer.
1. Color Transitions — Remix.supply
Remix.supply, a business that sells premium Framer templates, uses hover-triggered color transitions on its most important calls to action. Color shifts help users understand which elements are interactive, while also nudging them closer to conversion.
Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t matter what color you choose for your buttons. Strong color contrast does matter, though—so avoid gray-on-black buttons.
Tip: With Framer, you can recreate this effect by selecting your component, opening the Hover panel, and setting your hover transition color in the Fill settings. Framer gives you full control over other values too, like opacity and border.
2. Image Scaling — Martinie Design
Chris Martinie’s portfolio uses subtle image scaling to improve gallery navigation. Since his portfolio navigation is mostly driven by images, this effect makes it clear that each portfolio image is clickable and nudges users to interact for more information.
If you add image scaling effects to your site, use high-quality imagery; lower-resolution images can look grainy after being scaled up. Keep the scaling effect subtle, so the interaction feels polished and doesn’t overwhelm the user’s experience.
Tip: With Framer, you can set up image scaling using the Hover Effects panel. Select your image, click Scale, and fine-tune the values to find the right balance. Use Framer’s built-in easing functions to make sure the animation stays smooth and fits with your brand.
3. Text Transformation — Trifecta
Trifecta, a New York-based growth studio, uses hover effects to make their text interactive, turning standard headlines and paragraphs into engaging typography. As you hover over different areas, text elements shift to italics. The change is quick, but smooth and adds visual interest to key information, while staying legible.
When you add text hover effects, keep transitions under 200ms to maintain a snappy feel, and limit these interactions to important messages you want to call attention to. Too much movement can make your site feel busy and distract from your core message.
Tip: With Framer, quickly add text transformation by selecting your text element, open the Hover Effects panel, and add a skew effect. Then, fine-tune the transformation values to match your typography style.
4. Content Reveal — Claudio Guglieri
Claudio Guglieri, a San Francisco-based experience designer, uses hover effects to make his contact information more engaging and avoid cluttering his page with contact details. As you hover over the words “Let’s collaborate,” they smoothly transition into an email address, while a nearby arrow shifts color, too.
One trick for user-friendly content reveal interactions is to make sure your hidden content has the same dimensions as your visible content to prevent jarring layout shifts. Also, by adding subtle visual indicators, like arrows or underlines, you can help users discover your hidden content intuitively.
Tip: With Framer, you can create a similar content reveal effect by putting two motion.div elements in a container. Make one visible and one hidden, then swap their visibility and position on hover using Motion’s whileHover prop.
5. Shadow Effects — FEASTIE Festival
FEASTIE, a Toronto-based festival, uses hover effects to give their website’s buttons depth. Their 3D shadow effects turn flat elements into something more tactile and engaging (and go along nicely with FEASTIE’s 1970s-inspired branding.)
As you add shadow effects to your design, make sure the light direction is the same across all elements on your site to keep visuals consistent. You’ll also want to use larger shadows for elements that appear to lift higher off the page.
Tip: With Framer, you can create a similar hover-triggered shadow by going to your element’s Effects settings, selecting Hover, and then changing your shadow and offset settings. For more advanced shadow effects, check out Framer’s guide to realistic shadows.
6. Custom Cursor — Kind Heart Design
Kind Heart, a design studio, uses a custom cursor transformation to nudge users to explore its portfolio. As you explore Kind Heart’s projects, your cursor transforms into a button labeled “View Work” whenever you hover over a project.
When designing custom cursors, keep them lightweight and proportional to standard cursor sizes to avoid disrupting the user’s navigation flow. Make sure your custom cursor has enough contrast against all possible backgrounds to stay easily visible.
Tip: You can create hover-triggered custom cursor effects using Framer’s custom cursor tools. By setting up Variants that respond to the layers you’re hovering over, you can make your custom cursor nudge users toward different actions.
7. Border Animations — Slides Agency
Slides, a presentation design agency, uses subtle corner-radius animations to add sophistication to their project gallery and to make it clear to users that the images are clickable. As you hover over each project, the borders soften into a smooth curve.
When implementing corner-radius animations, keep the change subtle. For example, shifting from 0px to 8-12px is enough to create visual interest without distracting users. Consider pairing border animations with a subtle scale or shadow transformation to add a greater sense of depth.
Tip: With Framer, you can dynamically transform design’s borders by using Motion’s layout animations, which let you smoothly animate between different CSS values.
8. Speed Control — Packaly
Packaly, a zero-emission shipping network, has a scrolling list of customer logos on its homepage. As you hover over each logo, the scrolling effect slows down, making it easier to read each item.
When designing infinite scroll animations, aim for a base scrolling speed that‘s slow enough to be legible, but fast enough to show movement. Consider adding a subtle opacity or scale effect to the hovered item to further emphasize the active state while the animation slows.
Tip: With Framer, you can create this effect using the Ticker component. Framer’s settings let you fine-tune exactly how much the animation slows on hover, helping you find the perfect balance.
9. Hover Previews — Work By Tomorrow
Work By Tomorrow, a Vancouver-based branding and design studio, uses hover previews to make portfolio navigation easier. As you move over project titles, relevant images pop up alongside a scrolling “View Project” ticker that indicates whether a dedicated project page is available.
There are a couple of risks to avoid with hover previews. First, if your preview images are too slow to load, users might not see anything. Second, if your previews trigger too easily, they can create a chaotic experience as users move their cursor across the page. Tackle these issues by loading preview images quickly and adding a brief hover delay before revealing the preview. You can also use a subtle fade-in animation to make the transition feel polished.
Tip: You can create this effect in Framer using the Image on Hover Component. Layer this component above any element to reveal images on hover.
10. Microanimations — Thibaut Crépelle
Thibaut Crépelle, a 3D and motion designer, features a keyboard-style navigation menu in the footer of his portfolio site. When you hover over any key, you can see it move down as if you had pressed it. The interaction turns standard navigation into something memorable, while also showing off Crépelle’s motion design expertise.
When designing hover-triggered microanimations, keep your object’s movements subtle and quick to maintain a responsive feel. A movement of just a handful of pixels is often enough to create a satisfying “press” effect, while keeping the interface uncluttered.
Tip: With Framer, you can create this kind of interactive 3D element by designing them in Spline and embedding them directly in your Framer website.
11. 3D Hover Effects — Alejandro Mejias
Alejandro Mejias is a freelance experience designer. Visit his homepage and you’ll find a 3D ”A” that responds to cursor movement. Hover over it to view it from any angle, with rotation speed increasing on click.
Keep the rotation range moderate when designing 3D cursor-tracking elements, and apply subtle easing so the movement feels smooth. Consider adding a gentle ambient animation to let users know that the element is interactive.
Tip: With Framer, you can design similar hover effects by adding a 3D hover override to any element. (This override also makes the element follow your cursor.)
12. Video Hover Effects — Deeo Studio
Deeo is a design studio in Baltimore, Maryland. Rather than using traditional media players on their video-heavy homepage, Deeo has a custom cursor that lets you pause or play each video as you hover over it.
When designing hover-triggered video effects, make sure your videos are optimized for web playback and preloaded to prevent stuttering. Add visual indicators, like play and pause icons, that help users understand what to do without needing explicit instructions.
Tip: With Framer, you can take video hover effects even further by creating a cinematic video button that adds video to the background of your buttons.
Best Practices for Hover Effects
Here’s how to create hover effects that enhance your site’s usability while keeping it fast, accessible, and reflective of your brand.
1. Design With Intent
Hover effects should be a natural extension of your interface. Rather than adding effects just to make your site look nice, create purpose-driven interactions that guide users.
Start with clear visual feedback. Use subtle shadows to indicate clickable cards, gentle color shifts for buttons, and smooth transitions for interactive elements. Keep your animations fast: Users should feel an immediate connection between their actions and your site’s response.
2. Reflect Your Brand
Your brand’s personality should come through in the hover effects you choose. Animation timing and easing are the big variables here: A professional services firm might use quick and precise effects, while brands with a more creative persona might opt for more bouncy and drawn-out animations.
Hover effects might not seem like a brand-critical design element, but they matter. Stay true to your broader design language: Each effect should feel like a natural extension of your brand.
3. Deliver Smooth Performance
Keep animations swift and lightweight. Aim for subtle movements rather than complex transitions that might cause lag. Start with simple effects like color changes and subtle scaling, and test your hover effects across different devices to make sure they’re responsive and don’t cause stuttering or delays.
Performance depends on the other elements involved in your hover effects, too. If you’re using images or additional content in your hover states, make sure they’re optimized.
4. Ensure Accessibility
Traditional hover interactions don’t work on mobile devices, which means you’ll need to have alternative triggers that work universally (like buttons or other touch-based triggers, for example.) And make sure to never hide essential content behind hover states. Any information that appears on hover for desktop users should either be permanently visible on mobile or accessible through clear interactive elements like “tap to expand” buttons.
Also, keep in mind that some users have enabled reduced motion in their system settings. Using the useReducedMotion hook, you can detect this setting and automatically adjust or disable animations.
Transform Your Site With Hover Effects
Hover effects have the power to turn static websites into dynamic experiences, but their real impact comes from purposeful implementation. Focus on creating meaningful interactions that enhance your users’ experience instead of adding effects to every element.
Framer’s powerful toolkit makes it easy to experiment with these techniques whether you’re implementing subtle microanimations or bold interactive states. Explore the examples we’ve shared, combine approaches that work for your brand, and discover how thoughtful hover effects can transform your digital presence.
For more inspiration and examples, check out the Framer Gallery or learn about animation and effects in the Framer Academy.
Step into the future of design
Step into the future of design
Step into the future of design
Join thousands using Framer to build high-performing websites fast.
Join thousands using Framer to build high-performing websites fast.
Join thousands using Framer to build high-performing websites fast.
