Button with Bubble Arrow

A CSS-only button where hover slides the content pill in from behind a circular arrow bubble, scales in the orange arrow from the left, scales out a duplicate resting arrow from the right, and rotates the arrow SVG 45°. Removing the content element leaves a standalone animated arrow bubble.

csshoverbuttonarrowanimationtransform

Code

index.html

html

<div class="btn-group">
  <a href="#" class="btn-bubble-arrow w-inline-block">
    <div class="btn-bubble-arrow__arrow">
      <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="100%" class="btn-bubble-arrow__arrow-svg"><polyline points="18 8 18 18 8 18" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-miterlimit="10" stroke-width="1.5"></polyline><line x1="18" y1="18" x2="5" y2="5" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-miterlimit="10" stroke-width="1.5"></line></svg>
    </div>
    <div class="btn-bubble-arrow__content">
      <span class="btn-bubble-arrow__content-text">Button Bubble</span>
    </div>
    <div class="btn-bubble-arrow__arrow is--duplicate">
      <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="100%" class="btn-bubble-arrow__arrow-svg"><polyline points="18 8 18 18 8 18" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-miterlimit="10" stroke-width="1.5"></polyline><line x1="18" y1="18" x2="5" y2="5" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-miterlimit="10" stroke-width="1.5"></line></svg>
    </div>
  </a>
</div>

styles.css

css

.btn-group {
  grid-column-gap: 3em;
  grid-row-gap: 3em;
  justify-content: center;
  font-size: 2em;
  display: flex;
}

.btn-bubble-arrow {
  border-radius: 10em;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  font-size: 1em;
  text-decoration: none;
  display: flex;
  position: relative;
}

.btn-bubble-arrow__arrow {
  color: #131313;
  background-color: #ff4c2f;
  border-radius: 10em;
  flex-flow: row;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  width: 3.75em;
  height: 3.75em;
  display: flex;
  position: relative;
  transition: transform 0.735s cubic-bezier(0.625, 0.05, 0, 1);
  transform: scale(0) rotate(0.001deg);
  transform-origin: left;
}

.btn-bubble-arrow__arrow.is--duplicate {
  z-index: 2;
  background-color: #efeeec;
  position: absolute;
  right: 0;
  transform: scale(1) rotate(0.001deg);
  transform-origin: right;
}

.btn-bubble-arrow__arrow-svg {
  width: 40%;
  transition: transform 0.735s cubic-bezier(0.625, 0.05, 0, 1);
  transform: rotate(0.001deg);
}

.btn-bubble-arrow__content {
  color: #efeeec;
  background-color: #0006;
  border-radius: 10em;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  height: 3.75em;
  padding-left: 2em;
  padding-right: 2em;
  display: flex;
  position: relative;
  transition: transform 0.735s cubic-bezier(0.625, 0.05, 0, 1);
  transform: translateX(-3.75em) rotate(0.001deg);
}

.btn-bubble-arrow__content-text {
  line-height: 1;
}

/* Hover */

.btn-bubble-arrow:hover .btn-bubble-arrow__content {
  transform: translateX(0em) rotate(0.001deg);
}

.btn-bubble-arrow:hover .btn-bubble-arrow__arrow-svg {
  transform: rotate(-45deg);
}

.btn-bubble-arrow:hover .btn-bubble-arrow__arrow {
  transform: scale(1) rotate(0.001deg);
}

.btn-bubble-arrow:hover .btn-bubble-arrow__arrow.is--duplicate {
  transform: scale(0) rotate(0.001deg);
}

Guide

Structure

Three elements stack inside the link: the orange .btn-bubble-arrow__arrow (hidden at rest, scales in from the left on hover), the .btn-bubble-arrow__content pill (offset -3.75em at rest, slides to 0 on hover), and the .is--duplicate arrow (visible at rest at the right, scales out on hover).

Arrow Swap

The duplicate arrow sits at position: absolute, right: 0 with transform-origin: right and scale(1) at rest. On hover it scales to 0 while the primary arrow scales from 0 using transform-origin: left — creating a swap illusion.

Arrow-Only Variant

Remove .btn-bubble-arrow__content entirely to get a standalone circular arrow button. The hover animation still works — the duplicate scales out and the orange circle scales in with the rotated arrow.

rotate(0.001deg)

The tiny rotation value on all animated elements is a GPU compositing hint. It forces the browser to promote the element to its own compositor layer, preventing subpixel jitter during CSS transforms.

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