Kill the Tooltip with Fire

Last month I led a workshop on writing tooltips, and I was tempted to make a one-slide presentation that said “How to use tooltips: Don’t.”

Tooltips can be helpful, but more often than not they’re used inappropriately. The mindset of Well I don’t know where to put this, so I’ll throw it in a tooltip is an all too common one, but I get it. Minimalism is a design heuristic that argues that everything on a screen should be there for a reason; users are trying to accomplish a goal, and the most straight-forward route is the one to take. Just think about trying to merge into the correct lane on a highway when a dozen signs are overhead — it’s overwhelming.

Tooltips are the worst of both worlds: they’re invasive, often block important content, and usually contain information that no one really needs to know; they’re also hidden, inaccessible, and sometimes hide info that’s needed to move forward.

What an enigma, the old tooltip.

And therein lies the problem: UX writers need to make sure that everything on the page has earned its place, but a tooltip’s very nature dictates that it’s extra. If the two big problems are unnecessary info and vital info, what’s the happy medium?

The answer’s in the name. Tip. Tooltips are designed as a nice to have item, like a side dish or a condiment to a meal: not necessary but can add a little something extra, and the experience is still okay even if it’s overlooked.