[Sigia-l] Rollover Question (Web 2.0)

[Todd Warfel]

On Sep 29, 2006, at 8:40 AM, David ((Heller)) Malouf wrote:

> I understand what Todd is saying about not relying on them, but  
> when I think
> about where I use them, I can't imagine the system being learnable  
> without
> them.
>
> [...]
>
> Anyway, to me tooltips are a part of good design, not a crutch of bad
> design. Because good design of complex applications requires more than
> intuition, it requires learning through discoverability.

What I'm saying is that "great design" would use tooltips as a Plan B  
– strive for an intuitive design that doesn't need them. They are  
useful, but the design shouldn't depend on them.


Cheers!

Todd R. Warfel
Partner, Design & Usability Specialist
Messagefirst | designing and usability consulting
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