content/snippets/css/s/perfect-transition-duration.md
---
title: The perfect duration for CSS transitions
shortTitle: CSS transition duration
type: tip
language: css
tags: [interactivity,visual,animation]
cover: perfect-timing
excerpt: Learn how to make your CSS transitions feel perfect when users interact with elements on the page with this simple tip.
dateModified: 2021-06-12
---
We have all experienced a website interaction that feels sluggish or otherwise off on account of poor transition or animation duration and timing. However, there is a very simple "golden rule" to help you avoid this poor user experience, called **Doherty Threshold:**
> Productivity soars when a computer and its users interact at a pace (<400ms) that ensures that neither has to wait on the other.
The **magic number** of `0.4s` sounds like a very reasonable threshold, but take a look at any of your favorite websites and you'll notice that most `transition-duration` or `animation-duration` values are closer to `0.3s`. This might have something to do with our more recent expectation of what a fast interaction should feel like - after all the relevant research paper was published in 1982.