Epileptic Seizures
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Seizures are characterized by uncontrollable shaking movements, loss of consciousness, and loss of awareness, and are caused by abnormally excessive or synchronous electrical impulses in the brain. The abnormal impulses may be caused by brain injury, dehydration, sleep deprecation, infections, fevers, drug overdoses, drug withdrawals, or flashing lights, among other things.
Photo-Epileptic Seizures are the ones caused by flashing or strobe-type effects in videos, graphics, or animations.
Design Considerations
Under no circumstances should we ever knowingly cause our users to lose consciousness or convulse.
While we can't guarantee that our designs will never cause seizures, things we can do include:
- Avoid video, animations, or transitions with flashing light sequences of 3 times or more per second
- Avoid bold, contrasting visual patterns such as stripes or checks.
- Avoid creating stimulating images that take up the complete field of vision.