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Tooltips need a delay, and then they need to skip it

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11–20 of 92 posts

Re: Tooltips need a delay, and then they need to skip it

#11
post #2

I ran into the same problem about 20 years ago when implementing hover-based dropdown menus on a website. It was only about 10 lines of JS and a couple global variables but I was the only person who understood it. :-P (These days I would have included more comments.) Naturally, there was a fallback to pure CSS menus, because we weren't barbarians.

what did the JS provide that the CSS solve wasn't the only solve?

Not OP, but my guess is things like timing delay--20 years ago, CSS animations and transitions weren't a thing yet, especially since 20 years ago also puts us in the era of IE6 being a major browser.

Re: Tooltips need a delay, and then they need to skip it

#15
This looks it's describing the same technique as the last example in https://emilkowal.ski/ui/you-dont-need-animations (and that whole post is worth a read, I think, if you found this interesting).

It's such a small detail that I wouldn't have otherwise noticed (because I don't build animations, so it doesn't cross my mind), but now that I know about it, I think about it all the time.

Re: Tooltips need a delay, and then they need to skip it

#17
It will never cease to amaze to me that Apple (under Jef Raskin who also wrote about this in The Humane Interface) observed and fixed problems with interactions like this in SYSTEM 6 in like 1993 or something - only for the same problem to have to be re-descovered and re-fixed decades later.

Re: Tooltips need a delay, and then they need to skip it

#19
post #12

What about using mouse velocity? If the mouse is changing position at a certain rate, don't show the tooltips.

i only show tooltips if you wiggle the mouse cursor over an element

On a Catholic church site I designed you have to do the cross pattern with your mouse and say 3 Hail Marys to see the tooltip.

There is no contact form. Only a Confession Textarea

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