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No.291 · Micro-animations

Star Rate

A five-star rating where the stars light one after another with a pop; five stars throws a sparkle, and a line says what it means.

The prompt

The design brief behind this component — reuse it to regenerate, remix, or explain it.

Build a five-star rating as a radiogroup of five star buttons (44px targets, roving tabindex, arrow keys, Home/End). Hovering previews the fill up to the hovered star. Choosing a rating fills the stars one after another — each star pops (scale 1 → 1.35 → 1 while it fills amber, 460ms) with a 70ms stagger — and choosing five also throws eight small sparks out of the last star. A line under the stars says what the rating means ("Not for me" … "Loved it"), announced politely. Two identical pop keyframes alternate per choice so the stagger replays without remounting the buttons (so keyboard focus is kept).

Notes

Interaction
Hover to preview, click or tap to rate; arrow keys move and select when focused.
Motion
Star pop 460ms with a 70ms stagger; sparks 700ms on a five-star rating.
Accessibility
A radiogroup of labelled radios ("3 stars") with roving tabindex; the meaning line is a polite live region. Reduced motion fills the stars instantly with no sparks.
Responsive
A fixed-size control that sits inline wherever it's placed; nothing depends on screen width.
On touch
Works the same on touch; there's no hover-only behaviour.

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301 components