Add option to disable page transition animation / preloader in Customizer

Impact: 45 · Confidence: 90 · Complexity: 35

Description

Problem: When navigating between pages in Neve (especially on certain starter site templates like 'New Institution'), users experience a page transition or flashing loader icon animation. Users who prefer instantaneous page loads or seamless navigation have no native theme setting to turn off this transition animation.

Desired Behavior: Provide a setting in the WordPress Customizer (e.g. under Customizer > Layout / Performance or General Settings) to enable or disable page transition / preloader animations globally.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Add a toggle control in the Customizer to enable/disable page transition animations.
• When disabled, page changes navigate immediately without displaying any loading icon or transition animation effect.
• The default setting preserves backward compatibility with existing starter site configurations.

Customer Context

The customer is using the Neve theme with the 'New Institution' starter site template (built with Gutenberg, Otter, and Atomic Wind). They noticed a flashing icon when switching between pages on their mobile browser and explicitly asked how to disable/remove the transition animation.

Root Cause Analysis

The underlying problem is that certain Neve starter site templates incorporate page transition animations or preloader icons during page navigation. Users who want static or immediate page loads currently lack a native Customizer control in the Neve theme to toggle off these page transition effects, leading to visible icon flashing or unwanted transition overhead during navigation.

Reasoning

The customer is using the Neve theme with the 'New Institution' starter site template and noticed an icon flashing during page transitions/navigation. They want an option or setting to disable page transitions / preloader animations between pages. A documentation check confirms there is no existing setting or documentation for disabling page transitions/preloaders in Neve. GitHub issue searches in both Codeinwp/neve and Codeinwp/neve-pro-addon yielded no existing issues or feature requests for page transition controls or preloader toggles. Therefore, this is a valid new feature request for Neve to provide a customizer toggle/setting to enable or disable page transition animations/preloaders.

Source: HelpScout #3442437277
Generated by feature-request-triage workflow (ID: feature-request-triage_6a9d1da0530136.66258902)

Begin at the WordPress Customizer integration and trace how the Neve starter-site transition or preloader is triggered, especially for New Institution. Define the toggle's default and verify navigation with it enabled and disabled; done means no loader or transition appears when disabled while existing configurations retain current behavior.