What can be used instead of tooltip in iphone app?

Question

What can be used instead of tooltip in iphone app?

Best alternative of tooltip in touch screen systems?

Answer 1

I believe tooltips are still viable in form of short timed message. For instance, you may show dialog when button can be single-clicked or long-pressed. How else would you describe to user that functionality. None of the solutions above seem to work in this case. I guess timed message, some kind of dialog and help file are only options. Or am I missing something?

Answer 2

Tooltips can be useful especially for icons or image that are not or cannot be labeled and also for multilingual apps where different text lengths must be taken into account. It's not always a question of rethinking your whole design, for me it depends on the context of your app. An design doesn't fail just because tooltips have to be added.

Safari on iPhone and iPad uses the method touch and hold on a link. This very near the actual hover and hold for desktop apps. This is also the direction we are looking at in my company.

Ref.: http://developer.apple.com/library/safari/#documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/HandlingEvents/HandlingEvents.html

Regards,

Answer 3

You don't. Instead apply a stronger preference for text buttons over buttons with an icon. Sometimes a footer message describes the current status in more detail.

(this is just me, interpreting Apple app design as good practice)

Answer 4

Tooltips are generally reserved for operating systems that have a cursor. In touchscreen applications, tooltips should not be needed at all. When your application is in use, the user should always know where the menus are, what all of the buttons do, etc, simply because they have been labeled clearly with a text explanation or an image.

If you need the use of tooltips in your application, you need to rethink your design.

Be Succinct.