Examples

Changing the spinner color

To change the color of the spinner, one only has to change the color property of the spinner element. This can be done with the standard Design System utility classes. The color of the spinner also defaults to inherit, so it will take on the color of the text in its parent container.

Using inside buttons

"Filled" mode

To provide more contrast when being rendered over other content, the .ds-c-spinner--filled class can be added to give it an appropriately shaped background with some padding.

Code

React

Preact/React documentation for Storybook

Style customization

The following CSS variables can be overridden to customize Spinner components:

Guidance

When to use

• To indicate a loading state for quick asynchronous tasks

When to consider alternatives

• When the process it is waiting for takes a long time. Spinners provide no feedback other than that we're waiting, so long processes can make users nervous that something went wrong. Consider adding descriptive text or another UX pattern entirely.
• When you are loading a whole page of content. If all you show the user is a spinner, the user may spend several seconds watching the spinner to be surprised with all the content all at once. Consider using a skeleton screen so the user knows what to expect.

Usage

• If the process takes a long time, use something else.

Accessibility

• The Spinner element should have an aria-valuetext attribute with a value of loading to provide a human readable text alternative for screen readers.
• When placed within a parent container, the parent element should include several ARIA attributes: aria-relevant, aria-live, and optionally aria-atomic.
  • aria-relevant may include additions, text, and removals. If a section will have items added or removed, use additions removals. If there will be additions or text changes without explicit removals, use additions text.
  • aria-live should be set to polite for a screen reader to speak the changes whenever the user is idle. aria-live="assertive" should only be used in situations that require a user’s immediate attention.
  • By default, a screen reader will only speak the contents of a changed node, and not the entire contents of the element. Set aria-atomic="true" for cases, such as an address, where a screen reader should read the contents of the entire element.

Learn more

• Response Times
• Progress Indicators
• GOV.UK Loading patterns discussion
• Avoid the Spinner
• ARIA Live Regions

Component maturity