A small, contextual label that appears on hover or keyboard focus to provide supplemental information about an interface element without cluttering the primary layout. Tooltips work well for icons and abbreviated labels, but should never be the only place critical information lives — touch devices can't hover.
Common contexts
- Adding tooltips to icon-only toolbar buttons in a desktop application to clarify each action's label
- Explaining what a complex setting does in an advanced configuration panel without crowding the label
- Reviewing a design audit to identify any cases where required form guidance exists only inside a tooltip
Use when
Use tooltips for supplemental clarification of elements that are clear enough in context to not need persistent labels — icon buttons and abbreviated table column headers are classic cases. The test: if the user can't complete the task without reading the tooltip, it's not supplemental, it's required.
Avoid when
Don't use tooltips as a substitute for clear labeling — if a button or icon needs a tooltip to be understood, the primary label is doing insufficient work. Tooltip-dependent designs fail completely on touch screens, in keyboard-only navigation, and for users who don't know to hover.
Overuse of tooltips is often a symptom of a team that can't agree on what to say in the UI — a tooltip becomes a dumping ground for every caveat, qualification, and exception that didn't make it into the main interface.
Real-world examples
- Figma's toolbar tooltips show the keyboard shortcut alongside the label (e.g., 'Rectangle R'), teaching power-user shortcuts passively to users who are still clicking through the GUI.
- GitHub's commit timestamp tooltips reveal the absolute date/time when hovered over relative timestamps ('3 days ago'), solving the ambiguity of relative time for users looking at old repositories.
- Stripe's Dashboard uses tooltips on metric cards to explain calculation methodology ('Monthly Recurring Revenue: sum of all active subscription charges normalised to a 30-day period') — reducing support tickets about metric definitions.