Why my navbar has no animation

For a long time I treated the navigation as the most important element to animate. Hover states, scroll reactions, staggered menu items, a small bounce when the mobile menu opened. Each change looked deliberate in the editor. Each one also added motion that nobody had asked for.

The turning point came when I tested a page on a mid-range phone over a weak connection. The header was technically smooth, but it competed with the content for attention. The first thing I noticed while scrolling was the header moving, not the article I had come to read.

So I removed most of it. The navbar now changes only when something meaningful changes, like the active section or the open state of the menu. Everything else holds still.

"Motion should answer a question the reader has. If it doesn't, it's decoration."

I now check every animation against that rule. Most of my navigation motion failed it. Respecting the system preference for reduced motion is part of the same habit, and the MDN reference on prefers-reduced-motion covers the basics well.