Tooltips in UI Design - blackcomentse

Tooltips help users understand unknown or unfamiliar objects that aren't described directly in the interface. They are a regnant way to simplify a UI — ply information users need when they need it, with minimal effort along their part, and aid app developers use shield space more effectively (trim screen clutter).

A tooltip is a small pop-up windowpane that labels the untagged control being pointed to, such every bit unlabeled toolbar controls operating room command buttons. Picture credit: Dribbble

How It Works

Tooltips are displayed automatically when users brood the pointer over an objective, and removed when users click the control or move the mouse, or when the tip times out.

Image citation: codemyui

Alternatively, tooltip rear end be caused away focusing on an element with a keyboard (usually the tab).

To Tooltip or Non To Tooltip

When To Use Tooltip

• Control doesn't have a text label. If a button, label, or icon has little to no descriptive text or needs any low explanation, then a tooltip works well for this — toolbar controls and command buttons with graphic labels should have tooltips.

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Toolbar's elements in copyreader have tooltips.

• Control benefits from a supplemental description or further information. Tooltips can comprise a form of active disclosure controls, eliminating the need forever to have descriptive text on test. Nevertheless, the schoolbook moldiness be additive — that is, not essential to the primary tasks. If it's essential, redact it directly in the UI so that users assume't have to discover or hunt for it.

Tooltip that appears o'er a file on the desktop and provides a detailed information approximately the file

• Rarely used features or features that can be interpreted differently. Tooltips function skilled for rarely used features users incline to forget about and context-specific features.

StackExchange app. If we didn't have tooltips along whol these up & down arrows next to each answer, much citizenry mightiness think they're for scrolling.

Avoid Victimization Tooltip

Mayhap the most important rule to follow is to never use tips as a substitute for good design. If a push, or other aim requires users to keep checking a tip to understand it, the invention is bad. Fix the innovation instead.

Likewise you shouldn't use tooltips in following situations:

• When users pauperization to interact with the tip's content. Users can't interact with tumble's content because kinetic the mouse makes them melt.
• When users hunt your app or site on a transferable device. Because tooltips fails to translate well on touch devices. Yes, you can design tooltip to be active upon touch, just it's not the most predictable fundamental interaction for your users. If you need more selective information for a certain hold in use a dotted underline to make it clear that the drug user can interact with the work but to lay it apart from a link.

Goody-goody Tooltip Design

Upstanding tooltip has the following properties:

Easily discoverable

The job with tooltips is that they deficiency visual clues —there's simply no optic clue, such as pointer change, that indicates that an object has a tooltip. But users nevertheless have to know that an object has a lead, either through past see surgery by experiment.
You can improve discoverability by using tips consistently, which in turn fosters predictability. If you provide tips for some objects, you should bring home the bacon them for all similar objects for which users are likely to want supplemental entropy. Sometimes doing so can be ambitious, because you must also make reliable that the tips are helpful and not self-evident.

Provides appropriate information

Good tooltip contains concise and helpful information:

• • The pop out-up windows used by tips are perfect for short sentences and sentence fragments, as well arsenic formatted textual matter.

Don't: Large blocks of text are tight to show and intense. Image credit: Microsoft

Do: Formatted school tex is much easier to read and scan. Image reference: Microsoft

• Gratuity text must be informative. It shouldn't make up obvious or just repeat what is already on the screen. If the school tex you use in a tooltip is a supererogatory hash over of the label, then it's pointless.

This tooltip isn't helpful for your users.

Contains static information

Users don't wait tooltips to convert from one instance to the next, so they are unlikely to notice changes in self-propelling content, such as position information.

However, on that point's exception for this rule — notification area icons. These icons communicate condition, and there is zero opposite CRT screen space available for position textbook.

Tooltips give condition information for notification area icons.

Has an seize placement

Tooltips should be placed near the object being hovered, unremarkably at the pointer's tail or header if possible. However, they should ne'er be set in a way that interferes with what the user is doing by obscuring the aim of interest.

Don't: compensate the objective the drug user is some to horizon or interact with.

Do: Always place the tumble happening the side of the object, even if that requires breakup between the pointer and the tip.

Finis

Tooltips are effectual. Design determinable tooltips that reveal concise, helpful, static, supplemental information in the appropriate identify at the appropriate time.

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About the Author: Dent Babich is a software developer and author of a blog dedicated to usability

Source: https://blog.icons8.com/articles/tooltips-in-ui-design/

Posted by: blackcomentse.blogspot.com

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