Description

Tooltips are small text like bubbles that appear when the user hovers an element.

For the purpose of this document, tooltips and infotips are the same

Usage & Behaviour

General guidelines

Structure

Most tooltips contain plain text which usually describes the control/object they point to.
Content can also be tooltips with a header, icons, dynamic content, actionable buttons, links, tables Etc...

Examples:

Component	Regular size	Small size
Regular
Regular with heading
Error see Field Validation
Warning see Field Validation
Informative
Help
Additional examples (from different apps)
Regular with dynamic content (Calendar \| statistics)
Regular with heading - 2 lines (Calendar)
Regular with structured content (Queue Analytics, Forecast)

Content

When the tooltip is applied to buttons, use user action-oriented copy that communicates the value in a straight forward manner.

See examples in the table:

Target area

Correct

Incorrect

"Generate a schedule for selected employees"

Rationale: explaining the main operation of the button including who it works on

"Generate schedule"

Rationale: repeating the same text as the button is redundant

"Search within the listed tree of organisation"

Rationale: explaining the main operation of the field including who it works on

"will search upon all trees of organisation excluding the dates or any other non-organisation relevant information. "

Rationale: Too long, and using unnecessary information which can be understood from context of the field and screen

Placement or Positioning

Preferred usage for a tooltip is with a small "triangle" at the outline to point mouse cursor (when technically feasible).

See examples:

Positioning

The position of the tooltip should be where the mouse cursor last position. See Interaction section
- Usually to the right (in LTR and below of the target area.
Avoid using the tooltip covering an element the user will interact with.
For example:

Correct	Incorrect

Interaction

Tooltip presentation

The following steps describe how should the tooltip be presented according to user behavior and context

Regular (e.g. truncation of any sort):

Mouse cursor enters the target area: display visual feedback of hover within 0.1 seconds.
If cursor remains stationary within the target area for 1.5 seconds (including the loading time of content), display tooltip on the location of the cursor currently within the target area (position of tooltip doesn't change while the cursor is inside target area)
If cursor had moved to another target area in less than 1 second, remove current tooltip and show tooltip for the new target after 0.1 seconds
Keep displaying the tooltip until the cursor has left the target area for 12 seconds or unlimited depending on the content complexity. Once the cursor left the target area close the tooltip after 0.1 seconds

Graph or micro chart

It usually requires more quick response presenting the information.

Mouse cursor enters the target area: display visual feedback of hover within 0.1 seconds..
If cursor remains stationary within the target area for 0.7 seconds
<Continue as regular or tooltip>

For example:

Tooltips with action

Follow the same Regular tooltip interaction with the following changes

While the mouse cursor is on the target area OR tooltip area, keep displaying the tooltip
Once the cursor left the target AND tooltip area, close the tooltip after 1 seconds

Target area

The target area should include all elements to which the tooltip is pointing.
All parts of the target area should be treated as an internal target area.

A video example of incorrect behavior:

Notice how the tooltip changes position within the same component on different elements such as Icon, label, and dropdown arrow)

Screen Recording 2019-07-28 at 11.58.44.mov

General

Tooltips on graphs may sometimes add additional graphical elements to help the user focus on the visual.
See example in Queue Analytics where a vertical line is added with tooltip to help maintain focus of hour:
Using "Esc" on the keyboard should hide the tooltip while the mouse cursor is still within the target area. Getting out of the target area should reset the interaction as explained above.

Best practices

Try to avoid tooltip with actions in them

Use A formatted structure is easier to read than big chunk (see in additional examples under Content)

Don’t use:

If you reach more than 250 chars, reconsider the tooltip and use a pop-over
Tooltips should not be used as the only way to accomplish a task (should not be vital for the task)
Just repeat what is already on the screen (i.e. redundant)

Transition

The tooltip should appear with an animated transition and not at once

See video:

Screen Recording 2019-12-29 at 10.24.57.mov

Accessibility compliance

Focus management

We already set general guidelines described in /wiki/spaces/UX/pages/308969693

Focusing on an element with tooltip should

Display the tooltip with the same time constraints described above in Tooltips#Interaction
Clicking Esc. should dismiss the tooltip as described above in Tooltips#Interaction

Unless otherwise specified, see our general compliance information in Fundamentals - Accessibility