Data Display

Tooltips

Planned

Tooltips show contextual help or information about specific components when a user hovers or focuses on them.

Options

Label

All tooltips have a label. The label communicates the contextual help or information about specific components when a user hovers over or focuses on them.

Neutral Variant

By default, tooltips are the neutral variant. These are the most common variant because most tooltips are used to only disclose additional information, without conveying a semantic meaning. The neutral variant never includes an icon.

Semantic Variants

Tooltips also come in semantic variants: informative (blue), positive (green), and negative (red). These use semantic colors to communicate the meaning.

Icon

3 of the 4 tooltip variants (informative, positive, and negative) can include an icon to supplement the messaging. These icons are predefined and can not be customized. Unless it's being used to provide context about the exact same icon, a semantic tooltip should always show an icon. Doing this is essential for helping users with color vision deficiency to discern the message tone.

Maximum Width

By default, the maximum width of a tooltip is size-2000 (160 px on desktop, 200 px on mobile). This can be customized to better fit your context.

Placement

A tooltip is positioned in relation to its target. Placement property values are at the: top, top left, top right, top start, top end, bottom, bottom left, bottom right, bottom start, bottom end, left, left top, left bottom, start, start top, start bottom, right, right top, right bottom, end, end top, end bottom. The default placement value is at the top.

Should Flip

This option determines whether or not a tooltip should be able to switch sides when constrained by space. A tooltip placed at the top would flip to be placed at the bottom (and vice versa), and a tooltip placed at the left would flip to be placed at the right (and vice versa). The default value is yes.

Offset

The offset is the distance between the end of the tip and the target. The default value is 4 px on desktop and 5 px on mobile, but it should be adjusted depending on the nature of the target.

Content Padding

To make sure that the tooltip will stay within certain boundaries (e.g., a browser window) it’s possible to define a container and a container padding value to respect. The default value for this is 8 px.

Behaviors

Text Overflow

When the label is too long for the available horizontal space, it wraps to form another line.

Animation

A tooltip fades in and out when showing and hiding, and slides a short distance from the source to indicate its origin. The direction of the slide (left, right, top, bottom) depends on the placement of the tooltip. The animation attributes (duration, easing, offset) are the same whether it’s showing or hiding.

Immediate or Delayed Appearance

Tooltips attached to help icons appear immediately. For conventional UI elements where a tooltip appearing immediately would be intrusive, delay appearance with a warmup period.

Content Padding

To make sure that the tooltip will stay within certain boundaries (e.g., a browser window) it’s possible to define a container and a container padding value to respect. The default value for this is 8 px.

Warmup and Cooldown

The warmup period is a global timer that requires the cursor to remain on a UI element for the allotted time before a tooltip appears. Once this period is complete, a tooltip appears instantly on any hovered-upon UI element until the cursor is in an area that does not trigger a tooltip for the duration of the cooldown period.

Implementation

Example Name

Description and implementation notes

<p> code example </p>

Information

Checklist

All interactive states

Includes all interactive states that are applicable (hover, down, focus, keyboard disabled).

All Color Schemes

Works properly across all color schemes (light, dark).

Accessible Contrast for Text

Text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for small text and at least 3:1 for large text (WCAG 2.0 1.4.3).

Accessible Contrast for UI Components

Visual information required to identify components and states (except inactive components) has a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 (WCAG 2.1 1.4.11).

Defined Options

Includes relevant options (variant, style, size, orientation, optional iconography, decorations, selection, error state, etc).

Defined Behaviors

Includes guidelines for keyboard focus, layout(wrapping, truncation, overflow) animation, interactions etc.

Usage guidelines

Includes a list of dos and don'ts that highlight best practices and common mistakes.

Writing Guidelines

Includes content standards or usage guidelines for how to write or format in-product content for the component.

Internationalization Guidelines

Works properly across various locales and includes guidelines for bi-directionality (RTL).

Keyboard Interactions

Follows WCAG 2.0 standards for keyboard accessibility guidelines and includes a description of the keyboard interactions.

Design Tokens

All design attributes (color, typography, layout, animation, etc.) are available as design tokens.

UI Kit

Includes a downloadable Figma file that shows multiple options, states, color themes, and platform scales.