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

[Chris Altmann <altmann rcsis com>]

Dan Zlotnikov wrote:
> I'm with Sebastian and his suggestion of making tooltips request-only.
> True, most frequent users of tooltips *will* be new users, but... Unless
> the user is already familiar with the concept of tooltips, they won't 
keep
> their cursor hovering over that one key for an indeterminate amount of
> time.
>
Making new users go through an extra step to get tooltips so that those
who are more comfortable with their computer don't have to see them by
default (even though they are more likely to be comfortable with
customizing their setup) doesn't sound right to me.

> My problems with tooltips:
>
> 1) The delay in getting one. I am forced to wait for whatever was
> determined to be the appropriate delay before finding out what the
> bloody thing is. In a new program that translates into inordinate delays.
>
About one second or slightly less on Gnome and Windows XP, then
instantly if you scrub whatever window they are in. In my mind, the
ideal delay is something slightly above the time it takes to aquire and
click a button when you already know what it does.

> I vote in favour of "by request" tooltips, linked to, perhaps, a
> right-click on a mouse. Or a shift-click. As long as this is a uniform
> standard for all GNOME programs, it will be easily (and quickly) learned
> and used.
Then you loose the potential for more interesting actions to bind to
those mouse clicks and key strokes in the future.

>
> 2) The restriction of tooltips to icons only. First, if you need a 
tooltip
> for an icon, then the icon is most likely not a very well-chosen one.

Sometimes an action is too complex to describe adequately with a small
picture yet still warrants prime placement on the toolbar. The best you
can hope is that it is recoginizable amongst the other icons.

> Second, how do two words in a menu give me more information about what
> that option does, as compared to an icon? I'm on a Win2K box at this
> moment using WinSSH Secure Shell. Menu choice: View->Reset Terminal.
> What's that do?
It resets the terminal? If the user doesn't know what that means, the
tooltip is going to have to be mighty big to explain it adequately.

>
> Who was it that decided tooltips should only be restricted to icons and
> buttons? Frequently, specialized commands (other than "cut," "copy," 
etc.)
> are unclear in their one- to two-word descriptions in the menu.
>
> 3) The salience (for lack of a better word) of the tooltip itself. If my
> cursor is positioned over a button in such a way that the tooltip appears
> underneath the cursor, I will be unable to click that button without
> moving the cursor.
>
> Of course, that's just plain bad design; ideally the tooltip should
> appear at the bottom edge of the cursor rather than on the button itself,
> to minimize obstruction of all kinds.

And they do in all the Gnome apps I just checked. Mozilla puts them an
apparently fixed distance away from the mouse, but if you move the mouse
over the tooltip it disappears. On Windows XP (and I would guess older
Windows as I've never had a problem) they do the same (except for
taskbar buttons, which display above the button like Gnome) as Mozilla
but instead of disappearing, the tooltip will pass the mouse click
through to the button. I don't see the problem here.

All that said. If they were to be optional per app, perhaps a good spot
for the setting would be on the Help menu; a "Show Tooltips" option
checked by default. A global options could go in with Menu and Toolbar
preferences, or on a help menu on the top panel bar.

But I've never felt the need to disable tooltips that I can remember.
Now big giant help balloons are another story entirely ...

PS: Sorry Dan. Meant that to go to the list.

--
Chris Altmann - altmann rcsis com