1. Usage

Don’t use tooltips for information that is vital to task completion. Users shouldn’t need to find a tooltip in order to complete their task. Tooltips are best when they provide useful, additional information or clarification. Tooltips disappear, so instructions or other directly actionable information, shouldn’t be in a tooltip.¹

2. Content

Provide brief and helpful content inside the tooltip. Tooltips with redundant text are not beneficial to users. Use only when necessary to provide an explanation for an interface element. Lengthy content is no longer a ‘tip’, so keep it brief.¹

3. Arrows

Use tooltip arrows to avoid confusion with neighboring elements. Tooltips are hard to discover because they often lack visual cues. Arrows are beneficial to clearly identify which element the tooltip is associated with. It’s important to use tooltips consistently to instill confidence in users by meeting their expectations.¹

4. Placement

Position tooltips so they don’t block related content. Test your tooltip positioning to ensure that the content does not block other information pertinent to the user’s goal. Your copy can be single- or multiple-line long as long as it’s relevant and it does not block related content.¹