Rudder

I am very confused with the description of fields in :hover tooltips.

I would prefer to have the description written in tiny characters below the field and its description.

One reason is: you can then have a better overview of all options and what they mean, without moving the mouse on every field.

One other reason is: it can generate errors: if you don't see the description, you will miss some important piece of information about the way you should fill in the field

Another reason: :hover is dead, please avoid it, it doesn't work on tablets and all of these touchscreen devices where you have no mouse. And this is the future.

Another reason: nobody ever looks at :hover stuff, the browser often stop to show the tooltip after a few second, you must move the mouse and try to get the tooltip again...

And the fully personal reason : I don't like it, i am disturbed by it, and fail to justify it accurately. I try to draw the line between my personal taste and some really functional need, but i'm not sure.

ncharles says : descriptions are often too long. I would say : tooltips are not appropriate for long texts (because of the display delay of the browser)