Maybe a day or two more to make sure everyone who wants a say can have one. I made a few mockups with the icons removed and an arrow added (https://imgur.com/a/h2m9z), I like the results and agrre that these changes improve the look. I also tried to make the padding the same on all of them (I forgot to do the right padding on the klipper mockup, I'll fix that). There are 15 pixels between the content and the edge of the tooltip, including the border. I don't think the length of the tooltip matters as much, it shouldn't be overly long, but it must maintain consistent padding. The height of the tooltips should all be the same. I didn't mess with the text in the network settings, but it should be changed to: first line networks, second line, status of connection (connected to such and such wifi). Tooltips should not have anything besides the name of the widget and any relevant status, if the widget doesn't have a status or is static, it should be a generic description of what the widget is (for example the arrow should have the under text, show hidden icons). For my own reasons I also centered the text in the task manager, I simply think that it looks better that way.

Here's a fixed klipper tooltip mockup http://imgur.com/JQGPrrr
Another thing I noticed while fixing that is that the text in tooltips is strangly aligned. The bottom text starts slightly more to the left than the top text. They should at least be aligned, if not have the bottom text be indented.

enoop wrote:Here's a fixed klipper tooltip mockup http://imgur.com/FArmQlW
Another thing I noticed while fixing that is that the text in tooltips is strangly aligned. The bottom text starts slightly more to the left than the top text. They should at least be aligned, if not have the bottom text be indented.

Are you sure you linked the correct image there?

Ha! I guess I did link the old picture instead of the fixed version. I'll edit that post to the correct one. In the mean time, I made a mockup of tooltips in the system tray, I made one with the entire side as an arrow and one with the arrow the same size as the others. https://imgur.com/a/DJBk1
In those mockups, I took the liberty to redo the power manager tooltip to follow the guidelines that the others conform to. I also indented the second line.

Great work so far, thimgs look much more aligned now!
One thing I wondered: Why doesn't the network manager tooltip show the name of the Plasmoid? Would Plasmoids that use two lines for status info not display their name? That would be a bit odd, wouldn't it?

The network tooltip should show the widget name, I just didn't want to edit the name into the mockup at the time. I personally think that all tooltips (asides from the task manager) should be two lines. Even the klipper tooltip can be truncated to fit in one line of status. The tooltips should be simple, information should be simple and something that the user might need. If more information is needed, the user would simply open the widget.

enoop wrote:The network tooltip should show the widget name, I just didn't want to edit the name into the mockup at the time. I personally think that all tooltips (asides from the task manager) should be two lines. Even the klipper tooltip can be truncated to fit in one line of status. The tooltips should be simple, information should be simple and something that the user might need. If more information is needed, the user would simply open the widget.

+1
We just have to make sure that no mockup which doesn't comply with the HIG will make it in there in the end

Good stuff so far enoop!

Thanks for the discussion, the tooltips are in fact not the nicest thing currently.
Some thoughts:

1.The (application) icons perform another function than looking good: The monochrome icons can't carry that much information. Colorful high-resolution icons can. So the icon (provided we don't just use the same plasma-theme icon again). Might be worth reconsidering (it's not crucial, though).

2. Showing a plasmoid-title is not always desired. E.g. if you hover the "more" icon in the system tray, it has a tooltip-text "show hidden icons". Here it does not make sense to add a "System tray" title. An icon doesn't make sense here, either. But what we need to do is to adjust the placement. The remaining text should be centered in the tooltip. What is to be discussed, is whether we want the tooltip-size to be adjusted or be kept the same size as the ones with icon+title+status. (I'd go for adjusting, the whitespace is ugly imho)

3. Have we decided for the arrows? In my opinion, the arrows don't fit at all into the rest of the design, that's why I'm asking...

1. The function of the icon in the tooltip in my opinion is to tie the together the application to the tooltip. If you see a system settings icon in the tooltip you know it is tied to the system settings. The plasma widgets for the most part do not have icons associated with them, or at least they don't use the icons persistently. I can't think of the icon used for the system tray off the top of my head. Therefore, I think the only benefit of the icons in this case is the visual benefit, but I find the tooltips to be better looking without them. It's a personal choice that I'm sure other might disagree with, but it seems that the plasma theme is going for a more minimal look. Another argument for why I think they should be removed is because they can be a bit distracting. I find myself hovering the mouse in the panel if I'm doing something in another window like reading an article or typing. If a tooltip popups up, it should be as unintrusive as possible, while still conveying the information that the user might need. Removing the icon makes the tooltip smaller and removes the splash of color that might draw the users eye.

2. I disagree, the arrow by itself seems disconnected from the from the rest of the system tray, adding the name will make sure users know it will show hidden icons for the system tray. I would also think that keeping consistency should be a priority, and adding the widget title in this case causes no real drawbacks while achieving this goal.

3. The arrows tie the tooltip to the widget better in my opinion. As they are now, they seem very disconnected from the object that spawned them. This part of the design I think is the most debatable, I included them in the mockup because others seemed to like them. I think they look good.

There are 2 types of tooltips:
"hoverable" - you can move cursor from target to popuptooltip and it stay e.g: notifications, taskbar , ktp contact list, kdevelop, ...
"non hoverable" it disappears after removing cursor from target e.g.: system tray icons, plasmoids, toolbar icons, ...

If there is need for both (and I believe it is) there should be some visual distinction between those types. That user can know how each tooltip behaves.

I think is should be global tooltips theme for plasma and applications. And I'd love to see move animation between apps and plasma.

Here are some up to date mockups that I've made (https://imgur.com/a/hjsK6). I made all of the tooltips have consistent high this go around while still maintaining the other standards like padding and general layout. I also removed the slight indent to the second row of text that I played with in the first try. I feel like having both aligned is fine. One thing I did run into is the tooltip that popups up when you hover over applications set to keep a icon in the task manager even if they aren't open. I removed the icon in the mockup, but I'm wondering if there should be a icon there for just that specific case. As always, I look forward to hearing what others think.

There is only one modification needed for tool tips - of any description: A single configuration button to turn them off. Tool tips were very annoying when they actually contained information about the button or icon the user was hovering over, however now EVERYTHING in the interface seems to have an associated TT, even if it is text itself!

Before I get too carried away ranting about the utility (or lack thereof) of TT's, let me just say, fix TT so they are uniform, make the text aligned however you most like it, fill them with whatever information you desire, but somewhere along the line PLEASE, Pretty PLEASE with sugar on top, give me a radio button somewhere to turn them off. Please.

You can turn off the plasma tooltips. Go to System Settings, Desktop Behavior, Workspace, and uncheck Show informational tips.

enoop wrote:Here are some up to date mockups that I've made (https://imgur.com/a/hjsK6). ...

The one thing i don't like with these mockups is the inconsistency that the taskbar has (Titles of windows are aligned centered, while every other tooltip is aligned to the left)

Other than that i think these are some sweeeet tooltips