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Please don't use this. Tooltip Tutorials are a user experience disaster. If you feel the urge to add this to your site - don't. Close your eyes and imagine Clip

Please don't use this. Tooltip Tutorials are a user experience disaster. If you feel the urge to add this to your site - don't. Close your eyes and imagine Clippy. Breathe deeply and create a user interface that won't need this.

sequoia 14y ago
Please give more specific reasons than "it's bad." What's wrong with pointing out UI elements to new users? For what it's worth Facebook does this routinely with UI changes.
- Joe8Bit 14y ago
  They also have merit during a 'tour' within your conversion process e.g. emphasising features and value points. But I agree with the more general principle, if you have to use these to onboard users WITHIN your experience, something has probably gone wrong.
  - taigeair 14y ago
    it totally depends on the complexity of your application. http://blog.kera.io/post/40920774387/web-apps-onboarding-how-to-treat-your-new-users http://blog.kera.io/post/40920774387/web-apps-onboarding-how...
esmevane 14y ago
Hold on: isn't there actual research which indicate improvements both in conversion rate and overall user retention / lifetime value with applications that feature tooltip tutorials on the first-run experience? Are you referencing research which says otherwise?
zupa-hu 14y ago
Please do use this. Tooltip tutorials are a user experience heaven. If you don't feel the urge to add this to your site - think again. User interfaces are getting better - which means if your UI is good, it is different, thus it won't be intuitive to those who are trained to not expect it. Often one has to choose to design a UI for the daily use vs. first a time usage. Better to put the clatter in the tooltips than to let them always be in your users way.
- dlf 14y ago
  To be fair, isn't one of the things that sets apart a UI as "good" that it is, in fact, intuitive?
  - dorkrawk 14y ago
    It's not quite that simple. A good interface for a power user is not a good interface for a first time user. Many developers think VIM has a good interface for what they want to do but I wouldn't call it intuitive for a first time user with no prior knowledge of its interface paradigm. Tools to bridge the gap between first use and power use are worth using.
  - pooriaazimi 14y ago
    I agree. But sometimes, you just can't make it easy enough for everybody. iPhoto for iPad is probably the nicest iPad app I've ever seen, and it has a tooltipy help system because it's humanely impossible to create something as powerful as iPhoto for iPad that's also intuitive. Sometimes you need a gentle nudge in the right direction. Now, I personally dislike Metro very, very much. But the "charms" idea seems nice. How you tell the user (that's just started using Win8) how to activate a charm without a tooltip (or something similar)? Tell the user once (or twice), and only after that it becomes intuitive.

sequoia 14y ago

Please give more specific reasons than "it's bad." What's wrong with pointing out UI elements to new users? For what it's worth Facebook does this routinely with UI changes.

Joe8Bit 14y ago
They also have merit during a 'tour' within your conversion process e.g. emphasising features and value points. But I agree with the more general principle, if you have to use these to onboard users WITHIN your experience, something has probably gone wrong.
- taigeair 14y ago
  it totally depends on the complexity of your application. http://blog.kera.io/post/40920774387/web-apps-onboarding-how-to-treat-your-new-users http://blog.kera.io/post/40920774387/web-apps-onboarding-how...

esmevane 14y ago

Hold on: isn't there actual research which indicate improvements both in conversion rate and overall user retention / lifetime value with applications that feature tooltip tutorials on the first-run experience? Are you referencing research which says otherwise?

zupa-hu 14y ago

Please do use this. Tooltip tutorials are a user experience heaven. If you don't feel the urge to add this to your site - think again. User interfaces are getting better - which means if your UI is good, it is different, thus it won't be intuitive to those who are trained to not expect it. Often one has to choose to design a UI for the daily use vs. first a time usage. Better to put the clatter in the tooltips than to let them always be in your users way.

dlf 14y ago
To be fair, isn't one of the things that sets apart a UI as "good" that it is, in fact, intuitive?
- dorkrawk 14y ago
  It's not quite that simple. A good interface for a power user is not a good interface for a first time user. Many developers think VIM has a good interface for what they want to do but I wouldn't call it intuitive for a first time user with no prior knowledge of its interface paradigm. Tools to bridge the gap between first use and power use are worth using.
- pooriaazimi 14y ago
  I agree. But sometimes, you just can't make it easy enough for everybody. iPhoto for iPad is probably the nicest iPad app I've ever seen, and it has a tooltipy help system because it's humanely impossible to create something as powerful as iPhoto for iPad that's also intuitive. Sometimes you need a gentle nudge in the right direction. Now, I personally dislike Metro very, very much. But the "charms" idea seems nice. How you tell the user (that's just started using Win8) how to activate a charm without a tooltip (or something similar)? Tell the user once (or twice), and only after that it becomes intuitive.