Tooltips

Specifications

• Icon tooltips and interactive tooltips may be positioned top, bottom, left, or right to the trigger item.
• Top and bottom pointers can be positioned (in addition to center) from left or right. The pointer is then placed relatively 16px from the edge of the tooltip. Non-centered pointer is used, for example, when a tooltip points to a control placed at the edge of the screen.
• The container of the tooltip text may be aligned to start, center or end.
• Do not make the tooltip larger than the element it appears from.
• Tooltips should have a 350ms before appearing.

Colors

Behaviors

• Icon tooltips appear on hover and focus.

Editorial

• Keep it brief—aim for fewer than 10 words.
• End full sentences with a period. Using “&” is OK. No “!”.
• For brevity, don’t spell out numbers: Use 12, not twelve.
• Use tooltips to present small amounts of data. Tooltips are similar to toasts, or micro-conclusions, which give the user a short confirmation.
• Use the past tense rather than present perfect (was submitted vs. has been submitted). We avoid the past perfect tense because it lacks clarity for translators.
• Use sentence case for tooltips.
• Never add a link to text in a tooltip.