Developers: Please Read!

Back in 1995, Microsoft's WORD software added a nifty feature called a "tooltip" which appeared in a little box above the cursor when a user hovered the mouse over a tool on the toolbar. In the twenty-five years since, many other software developers added this to their software. Eventually, web developers began to add tooltips to website designs as well. They can be very helpful to users by showing additional information when hovering their mouse over various items on the site.

The following screenshot from the PEAKD front-end to the Hive blockchain shows how helpful a well-placed tooltip can be for showing additional information. Hovering over the area I've shown as dotted reveals the information in the solid box, way above the pointer:

HOWEVER, I am seeing a trend that is making the tooltip much less helpful... 😬

For the entire twenty-five years tooltips have existed, I have always seen them displayed above the cursor on the screen where they are easily visible, as shown above. In recent months, however, I am seeing more and more websites displaying the tooltip box literally beneath the cursor so that the cursor is actually hiding some of the information in the box. The screenshot below from the Hive.Blog front-end to the Hive blockchain demonstrates poor placement of the tooltip, hidden beneath the cursor. GOOD LUCK trying to read the month and date in that box with the cursor hiding it. 🙁

Sadly, Hive.Blog is just one of the dozens of websites I have seen that are doing this lately. It's being done on non-Hive sites as well as Hive-related sites, so it is a disturbing web-wide phenomenon.

This is definitely a disagreeable departure from the rational convention of the past twenty-five years of the use of tooltips. I cannot quite fathom why this is being done, nor why the developers, themselves, have not noticed they're hiding information. Perhaps most developers don't actually use the sites they design? Surely, I am not the only person who has noticed this! 🤔

Please, developers, stop doing this and return the tooltip to its rightful position above the cursor so that information is not obstructed! Not only will us users thank you, but your reputation as developers will improve as well. Please make sure the front-end teams see this! Thank you!

I don't know exactly whom to tag to be sure they see this post. Hopefully, the following people will find this feedback useful, or will at least share this information with developers who will find it useful. Please pass this on! Thank you!