Stylish Animated Search Input with Glitch and Shake Effects

This creative input design turns a basic text field into an animated, retro-inspired user interface. With glitch effects, hover movements, and blinking cursors, this search input feels alive and highly interactive—all created using just HTML and CSS.

Layout Overview

The input is placed inside a centered container that limits its maximum width, making it ideal for placing in headers, hero sections, or contact forms. The design uses a classic monospace font and bold styling, giving it an old-school terminal or typewriter aesthetic. The placeholder text inside the field reads “Search the internet…” and immediately sets the tone for what feels like a command-line experience.

Hover and Shadow Effect

When the user hovers over the input, it slightly lifts and shifts its shadow, mimicking a 3D, pressed-button style. This small movement brings a touch of depth to the design and encourages interaction. The change in shadow direction gives the illusion of the input being pulled forward toward the user.

Focus and Typing Animation

As soon as a user clicks inside the input field, the background color inverts from white to black, and the text turns white. This dramatic switch enhances readability while making it obvious that the input is active. The border color also changes to give visual feedback of the focus state.

At the same time, the entire field performs a quick shaking animation—like an error vibration or computer glitch. This adds character to the input and draws attention to its active state.

Glitching Text and Blinking Cursor

Once a user starts typing, the input text activates a glitch-style animation. The letters slightly shift, skew, and flicker in a loop, giving the appearance of digital interference or a hacked terminal effect. This glitch animation runs continuously while there’s text inside the field, giving the interface a futuristic, techy feel.

To top it off, a blinking vertical bar appears at the edge of the field—like an old-school text cursor. This blinking line animates with consistent timing, helping to guide the user’s eye and making the input experience feel dynamic and familiar.

Responsive and Lightweight

Despite all the movement and interaction, the entire design is responsive and minimal. It adjusts to smaller screens and uses only native CSS properties. There’s no JavaScript involved, keeping the design lightweight and easy to maintain.

The combination of smooth transitions, glitch animations, and visual feedback makes this input box perfect for modern, creative websites—especially those with a tech, hacker, gaming, or cyberpunk theme.

This input design goes beyond functionality. It tells a visual story and adds personality to an otherwise standard form element—all through clever CSS animation.