Ever downloaded a cool new app, only to be met with a confusing array of buttons and menus? Yeah, we've all been there. That "now what?" moment can be frustrating enough to make you ditch the app altogether. And as a product manager, that's the last thing you want.
Studies show that 88% of users are less likely to return to an app after a poor user experience. Think of having a friendly guide within the app, gently nudging users in the right direction, explaining features, and preventing those moments of confusion. That's the magic of mobile tooltips! They're like little digital tour guides, offering timely assistance and valuable insights precisely when users need them most.
This guide will show you how to use mobile tooltips to create a smoother, more engaging user experience. It will turn potential frustrations into "aha!" moments and keep users returning for more.
What are Mobile App Tooltips?
Mobile app tooltips are concise, contextual messages (or prompts) that appear within the app’s user interface to help users navigate it.
They are a kind of in-app nudge. They are visual cues or textual overlays highlighting specific app elements or prompt action, helping the user better understand the app’s interface or design.
For example, Amazon is showcasing a small tooltip for a new user who hasn’t signed in or created an account on Amazon. It prompts the new user to sign in or as a new customer rather than jump into browsing the store.
Amazon is ensuring it gets the new website visitor’s contact information to continue its relationship with them and, hopefully, bring them back to its site via retargeting or email campaigns.
Importance of Tooltips in Mobile Apps
Tooltips help improve user experience, whether for new users interacting with your app for the first time or existing users experiencing changes in the flow.
Here are five ways in which mobile tooltips help provide a better user experience:
1. Mobile App Tooltips Guide User Navigation
When users cannot understand the next step expected within the app, tooltips help guide them. They assist users in understanding complex features or functionalities to move forward in the designed user flow. Doing so reduces any confusion and frustration and, thus, potential drop-offs.
2. Makes User Onboarding Easy
User onboarding is a critical user flow where drop-offs can cost too much for the app’s success. Adopting tooltips as invaluable companions to guide new users through the app interface is better. They help accelerate the learning curve, ensuring users can quickly grasp the app's functionalities.
3. Reducing Errors And Unnecessary Actions By Users
Sometimes, users may accidentally or unknowingly click on buttons or perform actions not intended for their use case. Tooltips help prevent user errors by offering clear instructions or warnings when users perform certain actions. Tooltips minimize frustration and enhance overall usability by guiding users away from pitfalls.
4. Helps Reinforce Call To Actions
The benefit of mobile tooltips is how they can draw attention to CTAs by highlighting their importance or relevance to the user's current task or objective.
For example, a tooltip near a CTA button may say, "Tap to complete the purchase and unlock exclusive discounts,". Now, you are reinforcing the importance of clicking the button to proceed with the desired action of purchasing and how you’re also giving discounts.
5. Increases Trust And Comfort In Using The App
Sometimes, users may hesitate to click on buttons or anywhere around the app due to uncertainty or apprehension about the outcome. Tooltips can address user concerns by providing reassurance, additional information, or incentives that motivate them to take action.
Overall, mobile app tooltips are a great way to improve the user experience and help users make the most of the app. Rightly placed tooltips eventually build trust and reduce drop-offs and support tickets caused by the app’s confusing design.
At Nudge, we can help you implement these mobile tooltips without any code or development bandwidth. Explore our walkthrough feature today.
8 Different Types of Mobile Tooltips and Their Functions
To further understand mobile tooltips, it is useful to know their different types. These categorizations are based on their use case as follows:
1. User Onboarding Tooltips
During user onboarding, you have to create a good first impression. Navigating an unfamiliar app interface can be daunting for new users. Onboarding tooltips are an in-app nudge that helps minimize friction by offering clear guidance on how to proceed. They also help users quickly grasp essential functionalities and proficiently use the app.
According to Colorcom, 90% of customers decide about a product or service within 90 seconds of their first interaction.
For example, if you have a Flipkart account and download the mobile app, it will direct your attention to the notifications section. Its copy mentions ‘Explore More’ – thus, segmenting its users and avoiding any onboarding tour which the user might be familiar with. It only shows the features the user may not know and will help them further explore the shopping app.
2. Feature Discovery Tooltips
Feature discovery tooltips highlight hidden or lesser-known features within the app. You can drive users' attention in the same user flow by helping them learn something useful. This encourages users to explore and engage with additional functionalities beyond the basics.
For example, here, Duolingo is sharing a tooltip to make users aware of how they can tap on the word and know its meaning. This helps a language learner further improve their understanding of the words and eventually improves their chances of completing the course.
Also Read: Using Tooltips for Enhanced User Experience on Mobile Apps
3. Instructional Tooltips
Instructional tooltips provide users with specific instructions, meaning, or guidance on performing certain actions within the app. The idea of providing these tooltips is to help users follow the designed flow of your app and not deviate into ambiguity. They also help users understand complex processes or workflows and reduce any confusion about what doing a specific action could ‘mean’.
For example, Google Drive is sharing a tooltip to help users properly use the ‘Camera’ feature for uploading documents. The tooltip instructs the user to align the camera's position. There is also a ‘feature discovery tooltip’ with the ‘color’ tooltip, highlighting the color effect features.
4. Confirmation Tooltips
Confirmation tooltips confirm user actions or decisions. This helps ensure that users are aware of the consequences of their actions before proceeding to the next, and it helps prevent accidental or unintended actions.
For example, here, Stackexchange is showing two tooltips. One is restricting the user from commenting on a post and informing them of the reason for this restriction. It also links to what ‘50 reputation’ means if the user wants to learn more about the context. Another is an instructional tooltip that describes the link.
5. Error Tooltips
Error prevention tooltips alert users to potential errors or pitfalls before they occur. These tooltips are commonly seen while filling out forms or signing up. They are essential, helping users avoid actions that could lead to mistakes or negative outcomes.
For example, it is quite common to receive error tooltips while filling up forms or entering details across apps. Some signup forms require you to enter ‘work email’ – and other common emails with Gmail or Yahoo show error in-app messages.
6. Help Tooltips
Help tooltips provide users with additional information or resources to help them use the app more effectively. They often offer tips, suggestions, or links to support resources.
For example, here, Loom is helping its users discover various uses for the Tool. It has placed its ‘Loom Community’ and a tooltip that explains what it is and how it helps users make the most of it. Users can click the link and proceed to explore more.
7. Social Sharing
Tooltips can encourage social sharing and user engagement by prompting users to share their experiences or achievements within the app. You can further provide incentives or rewards for sharing. Further placing tooltips push for a sense of community and drive user-generated content.
For example, here Pinterest is using a tooltip to guide users to its social sharing features. It has placed a CTA with a casual one-liner copy, thus not being too pushy in its tooltip. It has also provided a ‘Not Now’ option for users to exit the tooltip. Here, Pinterest has managed to trigger social sharing without distracting or frustrating users.
8. New Feature Announcement
Tooltips are effective vehicles for notifying users when introducing new features or updates. You can place CTAs that provide relevant information or instructions for accessing the features. By proactively informing users about new functionalities, tooltips encourage exploration and adoption of the latest enhancements.
For example, Gmail informs users about updating the Google sign-in design experience. This is important because sign-in is a critical activity involving passwords, and sudden design changes may trigger discomfort and confusion among existing users. Gmail tells users about these changes so that they can continue signing in without hesitation.
How to Design Effective Mobile Tooltips?
Ideally, your user interface should be intuitive and self-explanatory. Mobile tooltips are useful to ensure any difficult aspects of user experience are handled. Thus, they need to be truly useful or become nothing more than a distraction.
Here are five best practices to keep in mind when implementing tooltips for your user interface design:
1. Write Concise And Clear Tooltip Copy
The content of the tooltip should be short and straightforward. It should directly address the action you want the user to consider. Include only essential information, enough to guide the user successfully through the designed user flow. 97% of companies reported improved communication with consumers after implementing texting initiatives.
For example, instead of saying, "Click here to proceed to the next step," use "Tap to continue" for clarity and conciseness.
2. Design Visually Appealing Tooltips
The tooltip should align with your product's overall design guidelines. It should merge with the design and stand out enough for the user to notice. To make tooltips stand out, consider using visually appealing elements such as color, typography, and iconography. Usually, it is better to choose icon-based tooltips with ‘?’ or ‘i’ icons, as they are more visually appealing and do not distract the user.
The best practice is to use the app's primary color for tooltips. This helps them blend seamlessly with the rest of the interface while still grabbing the user's attention. Nudge helps you design and launch tooltips that look native to your app.
3. Place Them Strategically Such That They Don’t Distract
No user would like unnecessary tooltips to pop up when using your app. Your tooltips should help users – ideally, being a choice to see.
If you’re promoting a feature, make sure it’s easy to close the tooltip and it doesn’t obstruct the current flow of interaction with the app. You should consider the user's focus area and adjust the tooltip's placement accordingly to maximize visibility without being intrusive.
For example, you can position tooltips near the relevant UI element or action. This ensures they are in the user's sight without blocking critical information. Also, ensure that they have the option to manually exit the tooltip when required.
4. Tooltips Should Have Contextual Relevance
Placing random information that the user already knows fails the whole purpose of a tooltip. Your tooltips need a context that aligns with the user's current actions or goals within the app. For this, you must pay close attention to the tooltip’s position and copy.
A best practice is displaying tooltips that provide information specific to the task the user is performing or the feature they are exploring.
5. Pay Attention To The Timing In The Tooltip Presentation
The tooltip should appear only when the user is anticipating help navigating the app. To time it, you can trigger tooltips based on user actions or interactions. Also, it shouldn’t appear at a too fast or slow pace, which may frustrate them.
Conduct A/B testing for your designed tooltips to understand the difference in engagement and impact. Consider using Nudge’s tooltips feature, which includes the creation of custom tooltips and analytics. Our dashboard will provide real-time feedback on your tooltips' performance and indicate whether they require further optimization.
Where To Utilize Mobile App Tooltips?
There are three main use cases where you place tooltips to guide users:
1. Provide Contextual Help
What might appear as an obvious step in your user flow might not be so for the end user, especially the first-time ones.
Step into your users' minds and think about which options, features, buttons, etc., would be out of sight or unclear to them. Once noted, you must check the context in which you have set up the tooltip and make sure it's effective by A/B testing.
For example, Airbnb provides context to its users about its reviews section. When you tap on it, it shows what the section means, its importance, and a link to check your interest. Thus, the user is more comfortable exploring further now that they know what ‘reviews’ mean in the Airbnb app.
2. Highlight Or Introduce New Features
You can highlight specific features or updates on your app to your users by timing it right. Doing so helps with product adoption. You can add action buttons to encourage interactive engagement by exploring the new feature directly from the tooltip. To get it right, timing is critical for placing the tooltip, else this may turn into a distraction for the user.
For example, if you share a product update, ensure tooltips announce new features promptly after the update is rolled out to users. Delayed deployment may lead to missed opportunities for engagement and exploration of the new functionalities.
Spotify is alerting its users about the availability of Snap Lens for sharing music from Spotify directly to Snapchat. If the user is an avid Snapchat user, they will be excited to try it out, thus further increasing engagement. Spotify has included the Snap Lens logo and a single one-liner text that mentions what the user can do with the new feature in its tooltip design.
Note how the tooltip dismissal is not present, which can be frustrating or confusing for a user who isn’t interested or uses Snapchat.
3. Describe Features Or UX Elements
These tooltips describe an app's features, form fields, buttons, etc. You commonly see them when filling out forms, signing up for a new app, making payments, exploring paid features, etc.
For example, the Photoshop app takes the new user on a product walkthrough of its editing features. An in-app message prompts the tour, and when you enter it, it describes various options available to edit the photo. There is an exit for the series of these tooltips (in this case, four) with the ‘Skip Tour’ option.
We can help you design and implement mobile tooltips without code
Nudge is a comprehensive user experience design platform that is focused on helping you improve user engagement and conversion. You can design custom user flows without code – thus, you have the flexibility to design multiple flows for your mobile tooltips and experiment with what works for your product.
Explore how Nudge can help you save costs on implementing mobile app tooltips and create the most relevant user experience—book a demo today.
