Skip to content
Pinky UI

Shimmer Surface

Use a restrained material sheen to indicate an active wait on a surface that already has a real content boundary.

Live example

Try the interaction before reading the recipe.

real component · keyboard-safe

Purpose

Use a restrained material sheen to indicate an active wait on a surface that already has a real content boundary.

Use when

A skeleton needs a subtle time cue and the content is above the fold. Pair it with SkeletonMorph rather than presenting the sheen as a finished surface.

Avoid

Permanent GPU-heavy animation, high contrast, or shimmer offscreen.

Accessibility

Mark the sheen decorative and provide a textual busy status elsewhere. The surface edge and content geometry should remain understandable without it.

Keyboard and touch

Shimmer must not affect focus or touch hit testing.

Reduced motion and performance

Use a static fill under reduced motion and pause or omit it for offscreen content.

Composition and anti-patterns

Compose with SkeletonMorph; never use it as decoration after content has loaded.

Source: packages/skills/loading/shimmer-surface.md