Description

Tooltips are small text bubbles that appear when the user hovers over 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 or element they relate to.

• A tooltip may also contain a header, icons, dynamic content, actionable buttons, links, tables, and other content elements.

Examples:

Component	Regular size	Small size
Regular
Regular with heading
Error See Field Validation
Warning see Field Validation
Informative
Help
Additional examples (from different applications)
Regular with dynamic content (Calendar | Statistics)
Regular with 2 line header (Calendar)
Regular with structured content (Queue Analytics, Forecast)

• The preferred presentation of a tooltip is with a small triangle near the cursor point, where technically feasible. Examples:

Placement and Positioning

• Tooltips should appear adjacent to the cursor. This is usually below and to the right of the cursor (except for with right-to-left (RTL) languages, where the tooltip may appear to the left instead).

• The tooltip should not move with the cursor while it remains within the target area. See Interaction below.

• The tooltip should not cover the element it relates to , which the user may need to interact with. For example:

Correct	Incorrect

Content

When applied to Buttons, tooltips should include a short and clear description of the action the user can perform. For example:

Target area	Correct	Incorrect
	"Generate a schedule for selected employees" Explains the main operation of the button, and what it will be applied to.	"Generate schedule" Only repeats the button text without further information, which is redundant.
	"Search within the tree of the organisation" Explains the main operation of the element, including the information it relates to.	"Will search all trees of the organisation excluding dates or any other information not relevant to the organisation." The text is too long, and includes unnecessary information which can be understood from the element’s context.

Interaction

Tooltip presentation

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

The behavior of tooltips depends on the context of the user’s interaction.

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

1. Mouse cursor enters the target area: display visual feedback of hover within 0.1 seconds.

2. 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)

3. 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

4. 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 

General interaction guidelines

Graphs and micro charts

It usually requires more quick response presenting the information. 

1. Mouse cursor enters the target area: display visual feedback of hover within 0.1 seconds..

2. If cursor remains stationary within the target area for 0.7 seconds

3. <Continue as regular or tooltip>

For example:

Tooltips with action

Follow the same Regular tooltip interaction with the following changes

1. While the mouse cursor is on the target area OR tooltip area, keep displaying the tooltip

2. 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

Design

Zeplin link	Screen thumbnail
https://zpl.io/b6JJj6K
https://zpl.io/anKN0QA

Code