Re: [Usability] Disable Tooltips, what is that about?

[Sebastian Rittau <srittau jroger in-berlin de>]

On Thu, Jul 24, 2003 at 08:04:29PM +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:

> Users seem to find Tooltips annoying.  I did a straw poll and actually got
> some sane answers (and whole lot of unhelpful "tooltips bad!" answers), in
> an attempt to figure out what exactly about them was annoying.

The problem is that tooltips are a distraction: If tooltips pop up
immediatly, the screen will "flicker" when the user moves the pointer
across the screen. Also, the area that the pointer is moved to can get
obscured. If tooltips pop up after a certain delay, they will distract
the user. Usually the user was thinking what to do next or was beginning
with a task, whenever the pointer pauses the pointer. Suddenly a tooltip
pops up and requires the user's attention. This is bad.

Please keep also in mind that tooltips are only helpful when you are
starting to use a program. The more experienced you get, the less you
will rely on tooltips, since you already know the function of the
buttons. In this case, a tooltip is not only a distraction, but an
embarresment. ("I know what the button does. Why is the application
treating me like a beginner?")

Tooltips need to be unobstrusive. I still believe that tooltips that are
displayed in the status bar are a good way to achieve this. Of course,
this solution is not universal, since not all windows feature a status
bar. Another alternative is to pop up tooltips only when requested, but
this would hide this feature to unexperienced users, who would require
the help of tooltips most.

 - Sebastian